[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi –
>>If i had stirred her up we would have got more. >>

I don’t think we need to stir her up more, I think it is a matter of keeping you in motion whether she is on the correct line or not, rather than stopping to fix the lines.

The first step is to just keep moving along the lines, so she keeps moving. And if there is something that went wrong, keep going like it didn’t happen and that things are perfectly correct. If it has really gone sideways, get one more jump and then reward.

When both of you are comfortable moving with the curve of the course the entire time, then we start to work on the finesse of tighter turns and more accurate lines.

>>In the ring i usually run more but we are getting lots of going wide.

>> I tend to lose connection when she is away in front of her going fast. If ste does turn she would miss 5 and possibly six. There is a very fine line between her being super responsive and me losing her because of lacknof clear communication.>>

For now, focus on getting her going the general direction on course and it doesn’t matter if she is wide or tight or misses a jump. Let’s get you practicing staying in motion, and let’s get her frustration reduced so she doesn’t go really wide or start offering different lines when the information is unclear. So if she misses 5 and 6? No worries, go to 7. Then on the next rep, turn sooner (but stay in motion, no stopping allowed :))

And when she is ahead, you can be looking at her bum and not at her eyes 🙂 She will still see the communication and connection, and you can keep moving.

So remember – we are not going for clean tight runs right now. We are going for smoothing out the teamwork, then we can get things smoother and tighter.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Thanks for the update!

>>I struggled with Alonso who would either take jump 2 to the tunnel or go in the wrong opening ignoring my physical and verbal cues. Granted jump 2 was probably closer to the tunnel then it should have been due my space contraints. I could not do this at speed with the puppy.>>

It is pretty normal that the adult dogs can do this and the 17 month old puppy cannot – he is still learning the skill while the adult dogs are rehearsing the skill they already learned.

>>But, How else can I handle going from jump 4 to 5 to tunnel 6 at speed ??>>

With the puppy, don’t worry about handling at speed – think of it as a training moment where you break it down and show him the skill at a walk, then at a jog, then eventually at a run. This is likely to take a couple of sessions because he needs to learn it before you can add the distraction of motion.
So break it down like you were mentioned and start him in front of 5 in a stay – and walk through it. If he is successful a couple of times, you can try faster walking then jogging.

The only other handling option is a blind cross 5-6 but that is a really hard blind cross – so would need to be broken down for you to teach him as well.

Keep me posted about how he does when you break it down to work the skill more slowly.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

8 hours of presenting?? That is heroic!!!!! You will be amazing 🙂

The sequences here looked good! More on thoughts about the bars below.

Seq 1 – I am think the handling was clear – the blind 2-3-4 looked good! You were timely and connected. If I had to nit pick, I would say you could open your shoulders into serp position for 5 sooner (as he is exiting 4) to get him turning left on 5 sooner (he was looking at you a little bit there). But your line of motion there was great and the 6-7 turn looked lovely too.

Seq 2:

On the first rep, right turn on 4 at 1:46 was handling that looked like a RC on the flat with the arm cue and line of motion turning your feet to the center of the bar. You felt that too because you re-walked it and made the adjustment and the other reps were spot on!
When you walked it, you moved to the left turn wing of 4 sooner – ideally as soon as you see his head turn for liftoff for 3, you run to the exit/wrap wing of 4. You definitely did that line of motion when you did the other reps and he got the left wrap. Yay! Now… you can do it sooner to cue the wrap sooner 🙂 As he lands from the backside at 2, when he looks at 3, we can assume that is his cue for you to go to 3: “Mom, I see it, what’s next”. So you can be on the way to 4 before he even gets to 3 – which will help you get the wrap at 4 even earlier and tighter, but will also draw him through the wrap on the exit of 3 more. And that will also tell us if there are any spots where he has commitment questions that we can answer for him 🙂

These sequences are ready for the added jump and added tunnel 🙂

But first, the jumping questions he had: I do think these are more jumping questions than I remember him having. All of the questions at the beginning were on left turns – not just the obvious ones where he hit the bar or the wing, but also the more subtle ones where he ticked the bar on 1 and added a stride on 2 for the 2nd sequence. But to keep us on our toes, the jumping questions at the end were right turns.

While young fast dogs do tend to sometimes hit bars when we talk over the bar (processing all the things and their mechanics drop out a little), I don’t think that was the cause here. Thanks to the close ups (those were great) it looks like he is rotated it little in his hind end so he is not getting equal power on both sides to jump (I hope I am making sense, it is early on a trial day here and only half a cup of coffee is in me LOL!!) That unequal liftoff was causing the bars and wing touching.

So why is it happening? Sure, it could have been the verbals over the bar, but that rotation was actually happening before he took off and before the verbal, so I don’t think it was verbals over the bar. I am leaning more towards either a bit of a struggle on the dry grass (subtle slipping, or not trusting the surface?) and/or maybe soreness somewhere.

A bit of soreness could cause him to offload to one side or the other, and also he was not turning his head into turns as much as he usually does (the cool thing about watching hours of a dog on video is that I can be like, his movement looks different LOL!).

And it would also explain why he was more vocal on Thursday than I remember him being 🙂 a bit of frustration that something was ouch, perhaps?

He warmed up into the left turns during this session and the striding got better – but then the right turns got harder towards the end.

Since you have a crazy work weekend, he gets 3 days of rest now and if you have time, you might want to give him a massage and see if you feel any tightness. Or, if you have a soft tissue person who can check for and release trigger points? I bet that would do the trick!

Keep me posted! The handling here looks great so we will figure out why he might be touching more bars than usual.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! These are looking great!!!

First video:
The lap turns are going really well! You might have been a little early stepping back with your leg throughout the session, but that was not a question for him (ideally you keep your feet together until he gets to your turn hand). You started off with really good timing for the turn hand, and then started to get a bit too early with it: note how he was tight when you were later at the beginning and wider when you were earlier wit moving the hand. Lap turns are weird in that they are a little delayed, to set up the best turn. Compare :12 where you let him get closer to your hand before turning (nice and tight!) versus :22, where you started the hand moving earlier and he was wider. The hand moving is what draws the dog in close for the tight turn so the longer you wait, the tighter it will be 🙂

Tandem turns also looked great were especially strong when you started with a tossed treat – that allowed you to set the turn with your hands before he got to you. Super!!!

Adding the prop looked great on the 2nd video. You had super good timing with the lap turn hands, probably because you needed to wait for him to get past the prop before moving: perfect!

Try not to mark anything with an ‘uh oh’ if something goes wrong because in handling, it is 99.99% our fault 🙂 Like at :24, you called him but he was already about 2 inches from the prop and fully committed to going to it before you called him – but you marked with uh oh when it was just a late name call.

The name calls on the other reps were earlier and he was perfect 🙂

The tandem turns also looked really good – you can start to do these a little sooner (just before he gets to you, you can start the turn hand cues).

I think he is ready for you to do these with the turn hand empty – that will get him looking at you hands a little less when you turn him away, and then you can toss the reward from the other hand.

Great job!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Feeling validated is HUGE!!! Because it is true – yo have emotions and opinions about things, and you are correct to have them and feel the way you do!!

>>And the idea that I can just do fun stuff for training or sneak in little bits and it’ll still help makes me so much less worried about them! That constant feeling of being behind is subsiding a little bit.>>

Feeling behind is a lot of pressure on yourself, in a way that doesn’t really help you achieve goals. A little performance goal of “I am going to run the dogs through some tunnels today and teach them to go straight at the exit with thrown rewards” is not fancy or sexy training, but it totally helps you achieve goals and is super silly fun for everyone LOL!

>This course that I thought would be one more pressure thing to check off on my list is becoming my favorite part of the day>>

Yay! There is no pressure in this course – just stuff to read when you can and chew on in your brain 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Seq 2 (which was first on this video) looked really strong! The turn from 3 to 4 was a bit of a Goldilocks And The 3 Bears Moment 🙂

On the first rep, there was not enough info:
As she lands from 2, she needs a wrap cue to come though the gap from 3-4. Without it, she jumps straight on that slice which puts her (correctly) on the parallel path line to the backside of 4

On the 2nd rep, there was too much info LOL! You did the flappy tappy at :18 which was a bit too much because she turned of the line to 4 entirely for a moment, and then you had to push her back out to 4.

I bet the verbal wrap and you moving to the left wing of 4 will be just right 🙂

Sequence 1 with the added jump:
She never looked at the added jump. Super!!!

The idea line and easy line here is to turn her to the right over 4, so she is looking directly at 5 and has a nice sweet serp to the slice at 6 (seems like there was plenty of room for the slice landing here). Yes, the added jump is out there but I bet she never looks at it 🙂
Turning to the left over 4 made 1-2-3-4 work nicely but made 4-5-6-7 a little harder – you had to be closer to 5 to push to the backside, but you can still get the slice exit for 6 (which is the faster line). You got the threadle wrap but it was definitely the slower line here and would put you behind on a bigger course.

Sequence 2 with the added jump looked great! Again, she never looked at the off course jump. Yay!

Question about your ‘in in’ and flappy tappy (thigh hitting) cue from :46 and also the first run – is it a threadle cue or a bypass cue? The Canadians use it as a bypass (don’t take anything) cue which is when I use it (which also means we basically never use it because we never really bypass things haha!) You were using it in a threadle context here, but she was looking at you a lot when o udid it, which adds to the handling. Threadle arms instead of the tapping might help her look at you less?

Great job here! Definitely add the tunnel now 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>The clapper. I haven’t done that since Nia. It is not a thing I would like to continue.

Ha! Yeah, let’s not bring it back LOL!

>>She doesn’t have the slice skill yet. Thought about the blind. If we get a chance I will try the blind at the end>>
Yes, try the blind, I bet she can do it!!

>>Very excited about this summer and all the things we will learn

Me too! You are off to a great start!
T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
You and Promise looked great in class last night! So much fun seeing you!!!

>.We got a run by on the first backside>>

I think the handling was strong there, the run past the bar was more of a training question. Yes, you can help her by shifting your connection to the landing spot as you run past, but also you can be dropping toys on the landing side as you run past to help her remember to look at the bar and not run parallel to it.

The first full run looked perfect!!

>>Then, I decided to go one more time to fix my wider turn at the end, >>

Let’s reframe how you look at that: your WINNING turn LOL! Sure it looks a little wider but she was in full on extension, so probably a lot faster than if you got her to put in a collection stride.
You can try it both ways on video, then we can time it and see which is faster 🙂

>. and then I just got the backside >>

Actually, I think that was not a threadle question – your running lines were different.

As she exited the wrap at :21 on the first run, you were already heading to the left side (exit) of jump 4. Perfect! Compare to he same spot at :36 – she landed from 3 and you had an extra step or two forward (like a backside cue) before moving to the left side of 4, so she correctly read it as a backside cue. Good girl!

>.Also, a housekeeping note. My mental management course has not popped up on my course list and won’t let me access it.>>

Oops, sorry! Totally my fault for not clicking the right buttons. It should be fixed now.

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Hooray for good weather!! Frankie did really well here!!

Video 1:
Really nice on all of these! You can try with keeping your arms lower, pointing to her more, closer to your body: that will help you move faster. The higher the arm and the further away it is from you, the slower you run (physics!) and both Frankie and Bazinga are speedsters, so we need to find the quickest way to move you up and down the lines.

Small suggestions:

Seq 1:
Great job sending to 4 and getting outta there to be ahead for 5
At :08 for 6, we can change the verbal to help get a tighter turn: when she is landing from 5, 5-6 replace the jump verbal with your wrap verbal so she can adjust before takeoff (you said the wrap verbal as she was jumping/landing).

Seq 2:
The more you line her up on a slice at 1, the better she will turn left away from the course (on the 2nd rep, she was center of the bar so it was less clear if you wanted a left turn or a right turn).

Trying sending to the push at 2 from where the wing and bar meet so you are not blocking the wing and can be one step further ahead to 3 (it looks like she had a little question over 2)

You can also do the FC a little sooner on jup 4: as soon as she is arriving at the entry wing for the backside, you can do the FC. You were a little late so she was a little wide.

Video 2 – super nice! I don’t think she looked at the added jump at all on any of the reps! Yay! Your handling looked basically the same as it did in the first video, which is great – you want to handle to show the line like you did here, rather than to avoid the off courses 🙂

Video 3:

>.I made a handling mistake at one point where I thought too hard about the “it is NOT a threadle” 5-6 LOL🙂 and she felt my brain waves. >>

That was on the first rep here – you were disconnected while thinking about that, which pulled her off the jump. The second rep looked great!

On sequence 2:
The opening looked really good! I think the timing of the FC at :31 matched the timing of the FC in the other videos. But now with the tunnel there, the slightly wider turn gets spicy! You were doing the FC as she was over the bar. See if you can start it as she arrives at the entry wing, so you are finished and connected before she even lands – that will tighten up the turn really nicely. You looked a LOT earlier at :54 (finished before takeoff) and the turn was tighter, I don’t think she looked at the tunnel. SUPER!!!

Onwards to sequence 3! Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yay! I am glad you are smiling!

The RYG sequences will be fun!!!!

>>Do you think in general rear crosses are not my best option for her? Or just the way I handled them in the 11-14 line?>>

I think in general, you might be using the RCs too much, maybe trying to protect bars, and that doesn’t show her enough info. For now, don’t worry about bars or anything – just run run run connect, do the blind, do the front, etc. I don’t think there is a single rear cross in the RYG sequences 🙂

Have fun!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Thanks for posting the videos, it helps me see what she is doing so we can smooth out the lines! Both of these videos are the same, let me know if there was a second video.

>>(collection is poor even when I am perfect, non existent when I am not)>>

Actually…. her collection is fine 🙂 Let’s not worry about that yet, let’s get you to continue to move up and down the lines proactively, rather than trying to manage her lines reactively (which is frustrating for her and puts you way out of position for the next line).

>. I ended up running less and over handling to get her to understand- not ideal.>>

Correct – and it will be counterproductive for running the big courses. Running less is also not helping her to understand, it is over-managing the lines – she runs a lot better when you keep moving along the lines.

Think of it like this:
Handling is proactive. It tells her what to do before she needs to do it. Managing is reactive – it either tells her what to do when it is to late to do it, or it stops the flow of information about what is next. She does a lot better with proactive handling 🙂

Here are details:

In general, when you keep moving and show the line and not really worry about what she is doing: she does GREAT! I think she was great with the 1-2-3 line at the beginning because you were connected and moving really well too!

The challenges you describe started happening at 4, when you were trying to manage her line waaaaaay too much. That actually stops the flow of information, which is why you were seeing her do other things.
On that first rep, you were turning her to her right over 4 with a rear cross but all the way on the far side of 4 (:05) which put you way behind on 5-6-7 . The outside arm at :08 pushed her to the backside of 6. No worries though, because you were in motion the whole time and not trying to over-manage.

Much better position at :31 for the rear cross!! But then you were trying to manage her at :32 by standing still so she just kept running and didn’t know where to go (frustration behavior? Information-seeking? Both?) Reward that effort from her because the stationary cue with you yelling didn’t make sense and you can see the frustration coming up. Same with :46 – she is not likely to take a jump when you are standing sitll in front of it and facing her, you have to move to show her the line and then she will take the jump.

I am not sure if you rewarded her on those or not, because then there was LOTS of frustration (continuing to just take jumps). That is the equivalent of a dog sniffing or biting the handler when they get stressed – she was saying “I am frustrated and don’t know what you want”. So rewarding all of her efforts will help reduce that as we clarify the handling: and motion clarifies it, not standing still or running less 🙂

You kept moving at 1:11 for 4-5, but you were moving backwards to pull her in then had to drive forward to 6, so she took it in extension and dropped the bar when you tried to call her back in for 7. So that is not a collection issue, it is a timing issue because by moving away then having to push back, all of the cues said “forward” to her so she didn’t know you wanted the turn til after landing of 6.

She did really well when you added the off course jump, put in a nice collection at 2 (1:17 and 1:38) and never looked at it. You were moving beautifully up that 1-2-3-4 line there!!! Note how well she did it 🙂

But then you went back to managing 4-5 at 1:22 – you stopped comletely, still facing 4 tried to pull her in almost like a threadle – so out of frustration, she went and took the off course jump (and did not get rewarded even though her response was fine, because the info was not really clear).

This particular run shows us the difference in what she needs to see: when you run with handling and you don’t try to manage her lines on the ground or turn, she does great (1-2-3-4 with the off cuorse jump there). And when you stop handling and try to manage things, she doesn’t have info about the line, gets frustrated, and runs off either really wide or to a line of off course obstacles.

At 1:32 and on the last run, you pulled away from 5 so she took it, but in this sequence it does not show the line to 6 so she had a lot of questions. But, that was more handling than standing still! Yay!

So for the next sequences: don’t worry a whole lot about what she is doing 🙂 Work on your line of running and handling, the proper line near the jumps. And keep handling that line even if you think she might go wide or something: if you try to manage her lines too much things will come off the rails. And with proactive handling, if something goes wrong, just keep going as if it was correct. Then try it again, still being proactive – don’t respond by stopping your movement because that makes it to hard for her to know what you want.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>. It went better though do,you notice the bar fall after we were a few jumps away? That’s Samantha playing with us🤣>>

Yes, that was hilarious!!!! Hi, Sam!

You were definitely more aggressive and proactive here and things went really well!!!

She definitely gives feedback about the moments when you wait too long – she smokes you LOL! This happened at :06 for example, when you waited a the 4 tunnel to get her in it and she left you in the dust at 5. You didn’t wait at :22 and had a much better line.

The GO for the tunnel exit needs to happen before she enters, so be sure to cue it early and a few times so she doesn’t look at you for more info when she exits.

At :31 – really good convergence 7-8-9 on the line after the weaves! You can also add a ‘get out’ and even an opposite arm and tunnel cue, when she is halfway between 7 and 8, to reduce her looking at you over 8.

Getting the 10 jump was going well – at :33 you were too early with the rotation (and a little loud on the collection cue – remember to whisper those and not shout them) so you got the tunnel on the re-send, You were definitely better at :59 but almost too early 🙂 1:46 and the last rep were best there, in terms of timing. The key is to make the big connection and be watching her eyes when she exits the tunnel. Keep moving forward to 10 and doing the cues until you see her look at it: that is you cue to leave for the next line.

Leaving early and NOT managing the gap at 10 got you through that box nicely to deal with the 12-13-14 line!!!! She never looked off course when you did that!

And the spin to the BC 13-14 at 1:05 was great! You did a post turn at 12 at 1:50 so the blind was late – both bars down there because you were in the way. You went back to the spin at 2:23 and 3:14 and that worked great – just remember to run towards 14 and not to the landing spot (death zone!) of 13.

About that turn at 14: the decel helps, but she needs several turn cues stacked on top of each other. Yes, do the nice early decel and also use your left but say left a few times and quietly: shouting it becomes more of a forward cue. I think a brake arm (opposite arm to kind of give her more “whoa” as you decel) will help too – that off course tunnel is right on her line, so stronger physical and verbal cues should really help get her turned, all starting as she is in the air over 13 so she can turn on 14.

Great job!! Keep up the aggressive, proactive handling 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I love the performance goal here! Adding in verbals 1 or 2 at a time is very doable and not overwhelming like it would be to add 10 verbals all at once. And you executed the performance beautifully!

>>Walked it, walked it with verbals, walked it at running speed with verbals.>>

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse…. nailed it! That is something you can bring into your in-person class with Lo, perhaps, especially on the harder stuff: more rehearsal before you run, so you can nail it right away with Sly.

Looking a sequence 2: this went REALLY well. He never even looked at the added jump. Beautiful!

Only one suggestion: I think adding a wrap wrap cue to the exit of 3 will get a better turn to take off of 4. So basically it would be 2 wrap cues in a row: when he landed from 2, you can cue 3 with the wrap wrap and then when he lands from 3, you can cue 4 with the wrap wrap as well.

Sequence 3: Also lovely! Nice timing of the FC 2-3! And lovely sends to the backside at 4, great timing on that FC. An dhe never looked at the potential off course jump after that. Hooray!

Since these went so well, you can definitely bring the tunnel in, to spice it all up LOL!! The handling should not be any different than what you did here!

Great job!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

This video is a trial run – a really fabulous run, especially the ending line after the dog walk – that is a really bad dog walk entry (illegal in UKI!) so good job to you for getting her on it and getting the ending line too!!

Can you repost the training video 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

This was definitely a more aggressive, proactive approach to this course 🙂 YAY!!!

The opening looked good, no problem getting the blind 3-4. You you drove her harder to the weaves and also to the 7-8-9 line that all looked really strong!!

Check out the send and leave at 10 at :22!! You were earlier wiht all the cues, she committed really well. And by leaving early and not managing things there, she did not look at the off courses at all. And hat put you in a great position for the next section!

Great job trying for the 12-13-14 blind – on these blinds when the distance is short, you probably don’t have time to complete the spin, look over your left side to cue 13, then do the blind to your right side. You can do directly to the right side after the spin so it will feel like one gigantic front cross, trusting that she will take 13 because of your motion.

But even though you didn’t quite get the blind, note how that running line still set up a great turn to the 15 tunnel at :29! Good job going with the flow there, and the switch at the end looked great!

>>Dancer sometimes still checks in with me even when I give her an on time cue.>>

A couple of ideas for you:

In some spots, it is likely that you were late or showing conflicting motion. For example, at :06 for tunnel #4, you said go after she exited, which was late so she was looking at you. The Go verbal for the straight exit should start before she enters, and say it a few times. Then after she exits, you can switch to the next cue.

The other spot she looked at you was at :09 when you said ‘get your weaves’ – the verbal was good but you turned early which was near a jump, so she looked at you because verbal said one thing and body said another. So keep running straight at the weaves til she looks at the weaves, then you can peel away.

In other instances, you might be getting looking at you if the placement of reward is near you a lot. So be sure to do a lot of throwing rewards (or having someone else throw) rather than reward from your hand or dropping a toy near you.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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