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Good morning!
This is a normal question on early serp training. We worked 8 puppies through this game in the live classes this week, and at least 6 of them had the same question as Muso.This skill requires a lot of quick lead changes and from the dogs, and those movements are not really supported by the handler as we move forward. That makes it hard!!
So, easy fix… we angle the jump. There are a lot of ways to teach serps, and for a lot of dogs, the angled jump makes all the difference. That way, you can both be going fast, and she will get the jump.
The Line from the wing to the toy remains the same as it was here, and your path from the wing to the toy remains the same. The jump will rotate on that axis, with the wing closer to the toy being pushed out away from the line, so when she exits the wing she will easily see the bar.
How much to rotate the wing? To start the next session, rotate it so much that it is basically impossible to miss the bar (since this session was hard). The wing might end up rotated 90 degrees from where it is here.
Get a few good reps going and if she is finding the bar, you can start to rotate it back towards the original position. Do that very gradually, inch by inch, so it is still easy to find (but skipping it is not impossible).
It will probably take a couple of sessions to get it relatively flat like it was here, but that is fine 🙂 and when we add more jumps, we will “open” up the line to get her finding the serps very easily, then flatten them back out.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She is doing a great job finding the backside, wowza!!!She had a little question at the beginning about coming in over the jump – you can swing your serp arm back to turn your shoulders to the bar, and look at the landing spot. That will help bring her in over the bar.
She had a light bulb moment after the first couple of reps, then she was unstoppable! I’m impressed with how well she found the backside as the wing got further and further, and even with all the balance reps mixed in. Super!!!!!!!
Since this game went really well, you can try adding more running 🙂 but be sure to maintain connection.
Great work!
TracyHi!
The serps look great here! She was terrific about coming right in for the jump and your serp position/motion was super clear. Nice!!!
You can add more distance between the wing and jump to get even more speed now 🙂You had your right verbal on the wing at the beginning but then switched to the sicsicsic verbal on the other side – I can’t remember if that us your left verbal, but I think it is a wrap verbal. So if it is the wrap verbal, use it when you are going to do a full wrap around the wing (with the FC past) and use the left soft turn verbal to line up the serp.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Poor Prytania, I am glad she is feeling better!!!
It was smart to use the MM with the tunnel to get better commitment – it really helped her and she looked great. Annalise, your connection after the FC wrap was TERRIFIC so definitely keep doing that connection! That helped her to find the tunnel and not just run to the MM. I think by the end she was a little tired so it was harder to get her into the tunnel but you made an excellent adjustment: you super connected and slowed down to help her, and she nailed it. YAY!
The tunnel commitment was really shining on the 2nd video! And yes, it is hard to get the 2nd wing past the straight tunnel – lots of running LOL! It was great to have Susan throw the toy LOL! The connection to get the wing on the straignt line needs to be a little strong, so she doesn’t curl into your.
She is doing a great job responding to your turn verbals on the tunnel exit, so definitely keep doing them and remember to add in the go go go for the straight exits.
>>We are also making progress with the retrieve

.
It looks liked she took off with it at the end of the tunnel turn video when you tried to get it from her…. So try to get her to move towards you, with or without the toy, then reward her for *not* running off with it LOL! The retrieve will keep getting better and better 🙂The set point looked great! I think the distance and her starting spot were perfect here, she was stepping in properly and centered between the jumps, and her head was a in a great position. Yay! One of these days we can add a bar to the 2nd jump, but there is no rush for that. She was actually a little sticky on the releases, especially on the last one. I think she needed a lot of eye contact on the release, so add in looking directly at her eyes before you release (like you did at :45) and see if that helps un-stick her 🙂
Great job! See you in a few minutes!
TracyHi!
>>I will try tomorrow morning to keep other dogs inside and see how Charlie works.
Yes, I am curious to see But also see the next comment (below) about how to smooth things out, the video you posted was very helpful!!
>Weather was PERFECT!
I kinda thought the weather was good because you were wearing long sleeves in one of the videos LOL!
>>ing them work the best for moving games. We will change that to be better!
>>“We want to teach him to engage and play without needing Archie there, with an eye on trials in the future when Archie can’t be in the ring LOL! But we have plenty of time to figure it out. ” Of course. We bond with Charlie nicely. I am taking him only and leaving to stay with my mom. We are swimming, playing and bonding on regular basics. Archie is big competition for me, I understand that.>>
I think I can see why he was slowing down/stopping! Thank you for posting the next video. Is this what you were seeing when he didn’t want to work?
Tracy
Hi~
>>This could count as Start line stays Game! He is good with that!
Absolutely! The was great stay practice with a big distraction 🙂
He is really building up the stay especially on the 2nd video, where you were dragging the toy the whole time as you lead out on the last rep. Yay! This is good! Keep building up the rewards as you get further and further away on the lead outs – it will make the jump grids even easier when you do them 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Thank you for posting this first video, it really helps us sort out the puzzle of how to get him amped up! There were a LOT of good things happening, and also I can better see why he might be stopping and not working in certain spots.
What is happening is that when things are clear in terms of the handling and connection, he works with a lot of drive. But when you hesitate or make a mistake or disconnect… he gets uncertain and stops moving.
I thought the beginning was really good- cookie rewards, then good tugging (remember when he used to NOT be able to tug after cookies? This was great tugging!)
Then he stopped working at approx :50 – you had a handler error where you stopped too short after the tunnel so he was not sure if he should take the wing, then you went to the opposite without without the tunnel so it was unclear and he was hesitant. Then you stopped fully, so he was not sure what was happening. He did come back and get going again, especially when you had high energy and lots of praise and the toy!
The last rep was a great example of how he works beautifully when you are connected: 2:29 – 2:35 was perfection!!!
At 2:36, he was behind you and doing great then you stopped at the wing and pointed forward and started to rotate (watch your right leg). This broke connection and changed the line of motion, so he froze because he didn’t know what you wanted. Then he was frustrated and couldn’t restart at the wing because he was facing you.
He started off really strong on the 2nd video, but the same thing happened:
Things were great when you were connected and clear! When you had an error at :20, he got confused and slowed down when you tried to fix it. There was another disconnection in the same spot at :36, so he got stressed and started to sniff.You did the right there there by just playing and giving him kisses ❤️
So in these handling games, 3 ideas:
– run with your hand pointing to his nose the whole time, so when he is behind you, he still sees your eyes and connection 🙂– shorten up the length of the sequence for now because he is really so young. Do maybe 4 or 5 things (wing/tunnel), then reward and plan for the next rep 🙂 He is a little younger than my baby Whippet who is 8 months now, and I do maybe 5 things in a row with t he whippet. Keep things shorter lets me get a lot of reinforcement in and also, I screw up a lot less LOL!!
– and if something goes wrong like it did at 2:36 on the first video or :17 on t he 2nd video, for example, don’t try to fix the wrap, and don’t hand him the reward… instead, turn and run back to the tunnel as if the wrap was correct, see going to the next wing, and connect more on the next wrap, then reward.
That should really help smooth things out! And again, thank you for showing this video because I think it is helpful so we can sort out what he needs 🙂
Tracy
Hi! You and Caper looked great in class!
>>On the last exercise, where the wings were all lined up and we pushed and pulled the dogs through them from a distance, does it matter which arm you use to pull them? It seemed like in your video you used the near-side arm (the one close to the wings) but several of the students in the class used their offside arm. What are your thoughts on that?>>
The arm use doesn’t really matter, it was a get ‘er done situation 🙂 so we were doing whatever we needed to do to produce the desired lead changes.
>>I am so glad I asked about jumping Caper. I worried that she might be too young/immature but I have to say the driving force is not so much social media but weather. If we have another winter like this one it really shortens the time I have to train here and I was getting panicky about all that I would like her to be introduced to by the time she is two. Would you recommend waiting until she is 16 – 17 months for introducing her to any contacts or can that start earlier?>>
You can start the foundation work and the plank work for contacts around now, then finish them up when she is between 16 months and 2 years old.
T
Hi!
>> I was so concentrated on calling Wrap ( right shoulder), Tide ( Left Shoulder) that I forgot to call the Exit of a tunnel!
The wrap exit verbals were really strong! Yes, you can add the GO verbal to the tunnel now too. He is doing really well!!
>> I tried with tugging toy, then with ball – got no drive from Charlie. I put Charlie in crate, trained Archie and get the dog I need! >>
That is interesting and a definite puzzle to work out. Was Archie nearby when Charlie didn’t want to play? Or was Charlie alone? Also, was this the first session or had he already ‘worked’? It didn’t look too hot (in terms of the weather) on the first video, but maybe heat was an issue?
We want to teach him to engage and play without needing Archie there, with an eye on trials in the future when Archie can’t be in the ring LOL! But we have plenty of time to figure it out.
So for now, you can definitely alternate Archie then Charline on the games. Then switch it: Charlie then Archie so Charlie doesn’t rely on seeing Archie first.
Will he play with a ball or toys without any agility, and without Archie there? That would be the first step to getting the drive for the toy without Archie running first.
The other thing is you can use whatever he loves when it is just him training by himself (such as food) and then go to the toys when he is more ramped up when Archie is around.
We can balance these things and slowly work them all together so that you have the drive for the toy without needing to first run Archie.
>> This is hard t
game to work with puppies. It was much easier with older trained dog>>I totally agree, this is a HARD game with puppies because the pup is learning the verbals and the commitments, so we really have to be pretty perfect LOL! That is very hard 🙂
You had excellent hustle and did well on the game though!!! Excellent motion and verbals on the exits of the straight tunnels to get the wing! You don’t even need to point with your arm – you can just run like a sprinter and make good connection 🙂
He only had one question where he ended up no the other side of you after a front cross. Make clear connection on the exit of the wrap on the figure 8 wraps so he knows where to be – you don’t need to run quite as fast so you have time to show connection.The 2nd video looks good too! You can see him looking at you a little on the tunnel exit coming towards the camera – that is where you can run like a sprinter (pumping arms, not pointing) so that he can see more of your connection and won’t need to look at you at all. That will help to get him to commit to the wing all the way past the straight tunnel exit.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The moving target game is going really well!
As we start to get more speed and adding bars –
Do you have bumps or maybe put a pool noodle over the bar so they won’t roll if he steps on them? I don’t want him to twist his wrist.Good job rewarding the stays when you were moving the toy! Yay! It is definitely hard to hold the stay while you lower the toy to the ground and lead out, and he is making HUGE improvements. Good boy!
Remember to do short lead outs – on this first video, you had a really big distance for a baby dog (his set up was far from the jump and the 2 jumps were far apart). So to set him up for success, you can lead out a little less so he doesn’t break the stay, then you can release and move for him to chase the toy.
On the videos, you got lots of good rewards in too! He was breaking the stay when you were trying to get closer to jump 2, so you can release him sooner – no need to do 2 jumps in this set up with this distance yet (more below on how to incorporate the 2 jumps) because the stay is most important and we wan tto set up success.
So to add this to the set point grid: the jumps should be about 6 feet apart with 2 bumps or pool noodle over the bars on the ground. Ask him to sit with his front feet about 6 inches from the first bar, and you lead out maybe 5 feet past bar 2 to start – then release and move the target like you did in the videos here. Ideally, we would like him to ‘bounce’ between the jumps: one hit of the front feet, one hit of the rear feet.
As he gets more experienced, you can lead out further so you are more like 10 feet past jump 2 when you release (and keep mixing in rewards thrown to him, like you did here, that ws great!). That will serve as our foundation setup for jumping games 🙂
Nice work!
TracyThis is the last Wind In Your Hair rep – fabulous! Since these are going so well, a couple of ideas for you:
– definitely add more distance between the wing and the jump, that will be easy for him.– you can change your position more too – you were starting close to the wing on these, so now you do two things slghtly differently:
a) you can start near the jump, send away to the wing, then run and get miles ahead to challenge him to still find the jump instead of chase you
b) you can start near the wing, and stay there til he is finished with the wrap (it will feel weird to stand still LOL!) When he finishes the wrap, then yu can run forward and he will drive way ahead of you.And, now that the skills are getting bigger and faster… try to get onto this turf as much as you can! He is doing really well on this surface, no slipping, so he can reallybuild even more speed and confidence now.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
