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Hi! This was lovely!!
I think this was still the 5 foot distance, yes? If so, a plan for the next session:
– move to 5.5 feet and do 2 reps of everything the same as you did here. And if all is good (I am guessing it will be great!) move bar #2 up another 2 inches. I think it was 8 inches here so can go to 10 inches, but if it was 10 inches here you can go to 12 inches. Do maybe 3 reps like that. And send the video LOL!!! I expect it will all be lovely like it was here, but it is fun to watch her sort it out and also it will be good to see if she has any questions.Great job!
TracyHi!
I am glad she is feeling better!! And I am also glad she had fun at the practice jump 🙂
Set point – what was the distance between jumps here? This will help us keep track. And her line up spot looked really good too!
Overall, her jumping form is developing really well (it is easier to see if you watch it in slow motion because she has very fast feets!!!) My only suggestion is to be more consistent with your release, in terms of when and where you are when you release her. It won’t make a big difference on this grid (because it is an easy one for her) but it will be helpful for when things get harder and for when we add height because it is one less thing for her to have to think about.Her stay is looking good so ideally, the toy is on the ground about 10 feet past the jump, then you release and walk forward dragging the toy. I think you were not really trusting her stay LOL so you were releasing, getting the toy in, and running all at once, at different spots. So she didn’t always seem to know if she should release when the toy moved or not. Moving more slowly will help her hold the stay as you lower the toy before the release.
The pill bug games are looking good! Things looked easier when you didn’t get quite as as far ahead, like at :26 (it is hard to maintain connection when you are way ahead on these), You were great about varying when you rewarded in terms of how many steps. And she was generally great about staing on one side of you unless you did the blind (the only accidental blinds where when you were a little disconnected, probably trying not to run into the tunnel LOL!!)
She did really well when you cued the blind cross too! Super!!
And yes, I feel your pain about running into the tunnel, that definitely adds an element of excitement to this game LOL!!
You can definitely add the 2nd tunnel when you get a chance.
>>I’ll be on hold from April 1 to 12th. I’m traveling to stay with my Mom while she has surgery.
We will miss you! Hoping for a speedy recovery for your mom!!!!
>>I won’t have any dogs with me 🙁 I’ll watch all the videos though so that we can play when I get back. I’ll double down on our efforts this week so that we don’t fall too far behind.>>
No worries, there is plenty of catch up time built into the class and also at the end, so you don’t need to feel pressured to keep up 🙂
>>I missed the flyball tournament! I was so bummed!!! I hope they run it again.>>
ESPN did a great job and there was a Boston Terrier running too!!!! It is on ESPN 2 and I am sure they will run it again 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Here is the video evidence of bringing the toy to hand! Love it!!!She did really well committing to the wrap jump here and finding the line after it!! Yay! For now, keep the start wrap on a wing, so she doesn’t have any opportunity to touch the bar 🙂 The wrap on a bar depends on timing of the handling cue and the space to set up collection, which is a can of worms we don’t want to open here but we will tackle later in the class 🙂 She hit the bar on one of the reps and was a little wide on the others getting over the bar, and that had more to do with handling/timing than anything else.
She transitioned from the toy to the stay and line up really nicely with the cookie at 1:02! Then it was really funny when you tossed the toy, it landed next to the water bowl, and she grabbed a quick drink at 1:18 LOL!
Try not to have a big reaction at 1:26 when she moved out of her stay. In her defense, you lined her up facing the blue jump at 1:23, then walked around to the other side of her and faced the white jump then faced the blue jump… at which point she moved (looking at you, asking a question about what was happening).
Compare that to your smooth-as-silk lineup and lead out at 1:02. So to help get the stay without questions or confusion, line her up on the side you want (the right side at 1:23 and the next rep) and lead out by moving forward like you did when you lined her up on your left side (rather than switching sides).The next step for this game is to add more distance, so she is eventually finding the jump after the wing wrap with a 15 foot or18 foot distance. I think she will really like the running!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
Good session here!
>> The higher bar definitely made a difference in her form and she even hit the bar with back feet once.
Yes, she was definitely jumping but also, doing really well. There was one tick of the bar but no worries – that is why we train LOL!! I think she looked really good, overall. You had her set up a little close at the beginning but then after 1:15, she was in the sweet spot line up positio.
>>Should I still be keeping the bars locked in the jump?
Yes – I am confident she was aware that she ticked the bar on that one rep, and also she didn’t knock it so she doesn’t learn to ignore bars falling 🙂
>> I think she may have been doing better towards the end?
Yes! Powerful! I suggest one more session just like this, in a few days. Then we can decide if we want to move the bar up.
>> Maybe I should have gone a little slower with the moving toy when starting out with the higher jump bar.
I thought you were good! It looks like you were doing a normal walk with it. She did really well!
My only suggestion has to do with the rewards for the stay – when you start coming back to her, tell her why you are coming back. A little praise should do the trick. When we are silent, the dogs often perceive that as “uh oh, I am in trouble” so you can praise as you move back to her and before the toy throw.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>. I have been doing walk throughs and saying the words but then I struggle remembering what I was going to do and what the verbal is etc. Sort of funny – sort of not funny. So much to remember!>>
You might need to turn your walk throughs into jog throughs or run throughs, so that you practice doing them while you are moving fast 🙂 It is a whole different game when we are running!
>> Thank you for thinking about those of us in winter’s death grip.
Everything will fit at Debi’s plus you can drink wine!
>>On one of your verbal webinars you answered someone’s question about jump training and you mentioned Nina Gregl and Fanny Gott. How much jump training is dealt with in the MaxPup class? I have been thinking about starting one of these with Caper but I don’t know if she is too young for something like that (she is 13 plus months old now). Do you have any thoughts on that you could share?>>
We do a series of jumping grids, one each week, so by the time class is done she will have a good foundation. Fanny is a little more ‘traditional’ in her approach and I can’t remember what Nina does LOL! I would wait to start formal jump training until she is closer to 16 or 17 months, so she is more in her ‘adult’ body. We don’t want to solidify movement patterns yet while she is still in an immature puppy body, because the science tells us that we will end up solidified immature movement patterns (which is also one of the reasons we don’t start teaching weaves yet too). Just stop watching social media where people are jumping their 13 month old pups at full height or trialing them at 15 months old – EEK!!!
See you tonight in class!
TracyHi! Nice work on these videos! Your line ups and your verbals were all super clear!
I think the hardest part was getting connection on the tunnel exit, to get him to commit to being on your right side. The key is going to be making a clearer connection on the tunnel exit with a massive eye contact with him and pointing your arm/hand back to him. The hand back to him looks like this:
And there are also some demos about why the dogs cut behind us when we point forward.
Video 1:
Nice line up! He found the line really well from the wing to the tunnel. You were looking a little ahead of him and pointing ahead of him to the wing after the tunnel, so he didn’t see which side of you to be on and ended up on your left side.The connection on the exit of the tunnel on video 2 at :08 was better, you were looking at his eyes more but pointing forward still caused him to ask a question about where to be. But then at :19 you looked forward and pointed forward, so he read it as a blind cross to get onto your left side.
The connection should look more like what you did at :15 as he exited the wing wrap: fingers to his nose, eyes on his eyes – that was perfect there and he knew exactly where to go. Yay!!
It is also possible he is more comfy being on your left, so it is even more important to emphasize connection when you want him on your right side.
Video 3 –
Your connection after the tunnel to the wing at :12 was there and so he read it, but he had a little question. More direct eye cntact and less pointing forward will totally help, to make it look like the connection you had on the wing exit at :14 which was GREAT! He had a young dog distraction moment a :15 instead of going into the tunnel, no worries LOL!Video 4 – The connection from tunnel to wing was visible with your eyes but yoru arm was blocking it a little at :08 andat the end, using magnet fingers to his nose will totally help! It will look more like what you did at the exit of the wrap at :11, it was really strong 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Yes, this is a really informative session and definitely good to have worked on!
>> I flipped the course so maybe it all seemed new going from the other direction. >>
Yes, I would say that made a big difference for her! Plus I think the 2nd jump was on a slightly different line, which made the backside more obvious and the front side harder to find.
>. it was just one of those sessions where we did not have anything that we had in the last session.
I think what was happening here was that you were emphasizing the verbals a lot and dialing back the handling… which is what made it harder for her to read the lines. I think at the end of the previous session, you were able to start to fade some of the handling to add more distance and emphasis on verbals. But the reverse happened here – on the first rep of each challenge (like :06 to turn away to the jump, at finding the tunnel entry at :41, and switching away from the tunnel entry at the end) you were using mainly verbals and not as much motion or handling… so she struggled.
This is good to know! At the start of the next session, continue to use the verbals but also emphasize the handling that supports the verbals to help set the lines, and I bet she gets it.
And when you are working the switch away on the tunnel exit, converge your line of motion towards the exit and drop your hands down to your knee-level or below so she can see the hand motion. You were hanging back a bit and your hands ended up above your shoulders, so she didn’t see the turn away cue.
The verbals will eventually take on a lot more power and independence, so pairing them with the handling that supports them will build them up even more.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad your weather is more normal and the internet is back! Yay!
>> I think Fritzi is also trying to figure out what I want.
Yes, for sure! But that is good, we want her to think about new stuff rather than fling herself at things LOL!
>.I need to pay attention to the direction my feet are going.
Yes, but I thought you were really good here with your feet pointing 🙂 There was only two spots where your feet pointed the wrong way:
at :28, I htink you wanted her to turn left but your feet showed her that a bit too late. You were much earlier on the next rep and also used the verbal so she read it really well.
at 1:32 she was going to the last jump then you stepped in behind her which changed her line to the tunnel, so she ended up in the tunnel.
You kept moving forward straight on the last rep and she was great!
Looking at the earlier moments in the video:
On the Switch from jump to jump – you can add an arm cue so you don’t have to work as hard to gt her turned away and can hang back even more. Without the arm cue, you had to move in past the switch jump and ue motion/footwork. The arm cue and verbal can be what does the work of turning her away, which opens up more freedom for you to NOT have to run forward as much (more distance and more layering!)You can do the same on the switch jump to tunnel – you moved back from the switch jump then forward to get her to turn away, but the arm cue can get it done without you needing to movee as much. Think of it as pulling with the arm as she is approaching the jump, then flicking her away with the arm before she takes off.
You had a bit more of the arm cue happening on the last rep – try to do it sooner (as she is approaching the jump) and you can hang out near the center of the bar, giving her just enough room to land (and use the verbal of course!)
The sequences looked really good!! She is reading the tight work like the threadle and the distance work wit the siwtches really nicely, so now it is a matter of just adding that switch arm and trying to see how early you can give the cues 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi! I am glad you got a dry day!! Hopefully the rain goes away again – it is crazy that your internet and cable was out!!
This session is looking good! There were a couple of bloopers here and there, but I think part of it had to do with several reps in a row, so she might have been expecting something different or trying to anticipate something different,
On the Switch from jump to jump at the beginning – try to use more upper body and less motion to turn her away – that arm cue is what does the heavy lifting so you don’t have to run as much 🙂 You added the verbal in the next section which is great!
To get the rear cross on the jump before the tunnel more consistently, your line of motion can push to center of the bar with your feet, that was when she was able to read the rear. You can also use a left verbal to help her understand that it is both the jump and a turn to the left.
One thing I noticed was that she hit more bars than usually – it looked to be like a processing thing because she was trying to read all of the turning away AND jump. So keep the bars on the turn away jump lower for now til she has more experience on the skill – then the bars can go back up because she will be able to focus on them more.
On the tunnel exit switches – she was reading them well! Now you can move the timing up to start showing her the physical cues (arm motion and convergence towards the line you want) as well as starting the verbal cue all before she enters the tunnel (and keep repeating it). She was a little wide but that was mainly because she was getting the info at the tunnel exit, so if you start before she enters, she will be able to exit already turning to the new line.
On the second part – the switch from jump to tunnel looked really good with the arm and motion! You were able to move away earlier and earlier throughout this section. Nice!!!
>> Once she backed out of the tunnel>>
On that one, she saw you run back towards to the jump before she entered the tunnel and you got quiet so she likely second-guessed herself and followed your motion. Repeating the verbal more and more will really help as you move away to support the tunnel when she is working independently (and some toy throws to the tunnel exit to maintain the value too)
>> she then kept taking the jump rather than the tunnel. I’m sure she was tired.>>
Possibly tired, or seeing too many of the same things so she was going to where the last reinforcement was (like at 2:31 and 2:39). You can mix things up more frequently and add in balance reps more (like going straight instead of the switch) to help her continue to read the cues.
The combo sequences looked good!! You worked the switch on the tunnel exit separately here to tighten the line on the switch exit, but also try to see if she will read it if you cue it before she goes in (and you keep repeating the verbal, remember not to call her name 🙂 ). The arm cue can come up before she enters which is what you were doing here, but you can also start the verbal and you can play with the arm cue starting before she exits. When you are working it from a distance, you can add in converging towards the exit with the eventual goal that you can get her to do the switch away on the tunnel exit while you are layering the jump 🙂
The rest looked really good, she was reading the close tight work like the threadle and the backsides and balancing it nicely with the distance work and turning away. Yay!!
Great job here!
TracyHi! These are looking good!
>> Baxter will hopefully jump 8”, fingers crossed.>>
We can start doing some measuring prep, someone else has already asked about it 🙂
Adding the wing wrap before this tunnel really made it smooth for you both! Clever!!!!
You had lovely connection here and he was perfect about staying on your line on the outside turns,The blind to the inside turn was great too – after the blind, keep moving around the tunnel but now he is on the inside and turning away from you.
>> I get that I was supposed to go around the wing setup with him – no wonder he pulled off.
Yes, he thought you wanted him to wrap that one wing LOL! No worries, try it next time 🙂
His only questions had to do with starting here (and also on the tunnel exit session). Two things that will help:
– You can step to the wing to get started when you let him go rather than be stationary.
– He really kinda hates being moved by the collar into the line up, so he is avoiding it. You can use the line up with a cookie like you did for the set point, or that ‘ready dance’ we did in maxpup 1 where we were engaging with the pup before the send but not always holding them. I think his toy play is strong enough that he will get on the toy when you present it in motion like you did here even after a line up cookie.
Tunnel exits:
He loves the sequences, hates the line up here too LOL!! So, you can totally step tothe wing here to get started, and use the line up cookie or ready dace to replace moving him by the collar. You can see some full-on avoidance moments of the collar moving like at 1:40. You did use a line up cookie at 1:13, for example, and it was smooth abnd he was happier for sure!
Fabulous job with the GO reps at the beginning! He was driving out straight and your toy throws were spot on! Yay!
He can be tighter on the exit turns, but that is a handling tweak:
To get tighter turns on the left and right exits, have your motion match the verbal (and at the same time): when you start saying left or right, you can also let him see you beginning to move towards the wing rather than continuing straight along the tunnel. On these reps, your voice said to turn and your motion said to go straight, so he was not sure of which it was, exactly.For example: You had good timing of the left cue at 1:18 but the motion showed a straight exit, so he exited looking straight but not at full blast.
You can see it more clearly a 1:59, 2:25 and 3:01 too – the right verbal could be a stride sooner, but the body motion was totally straight so he exited straight. He should still commit to the tunnel if you cue it then when he is about 5 feet from it start saying left or right and changing your running line, and you should see him exiting already turned and looking the correct direction.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyThat is awesome!!! Bringing the toy back to the hand is actually one of the hardest behaviors to get! At least the rain had the positive outcome of being able to train that. Fingers crossed that this new round of rain is SHORT and you are back to clear blue skies soon 🙂
TracyGood morning!
The set point is going really well. And it as interesting to see how arousal changed the jumping form. The first rep with the stationary toy was fine, and the 2nd rep was more aroused – and was ass-over-teakettle where her hind end was disorganized (even though I think the toy was basically in the same place). So if you use a stationary toy, have it at least 15 feet from jump 2 so she can organize her landing.
The moving target went well on all reps except the 2nd to last rep (more arousal!) – she was set up closer, she was leaning forward, she moved before the release… and was not as well-organized as the other reps. It was still pretty good, but mot as good as the 3rd rep and the last rep where she was set up perfectly and not leaning. You might already be doing this, but definitely add in throwing rewards back to help keep her upright in the stay (but if she leans, don’t fight with her because she probably doesn’t even know she is leaning and it will not be a problem when she is on a real course :))
So she is about 13.5 months with 2nd bar at 8…. Do one more session like this at some point this week (no rush, she looks good, it is not a high priority) and then we can move the bar to 10 in the next week or two. Time is on your side here – the goal is to have full height jumping by maybe 18 months old or later than that, and I recommend starting agility trials at a lower height so there is less to process in that environment.
The tunnel exit games looked fun!! She is a speedy beast! Love it!
>>HOW DO YOU MAKE IT GO STRAIGHT?!? Was it the fence?>>
Ha! Good job with all of the GO rewards – that is the first step to getting the straight line exits. First part of the concept is to convince her to run as fast as she can STRAIGHT after a tunnel, and there was a lot of progress here with that!! Then we finesse it to picking up obstacles after the tunnel exit.
I don’t think it was the fence that was pulling her off the wing. You can try it in a new location but I don’t think that was the question he was having.
Being ahead worked great when you could send her to the wing and get ahead of her at the tunnel exit. Remember to connect a lot – that is when she did great. When you were a little softer in the connection, she curled into you.And to get her to drive to the wing without you being ahead: she just doesn’t know she is supposed to look for something that far ahead of you 🙂 and she doesn’t even really see the wing.
The first step to getting her to see the wing is to move it MILES closer (or KMs closer haha). Put it 2 meters away from the tunnel exit, with the side you want on a SUPER obvious line. And I don’t care if she wraps it, just have her go past it on the correct side and throw the reward.
If that goes well? Move it to 3 meters away. Then over the course of several sessions… 4 meters. And when you are at 4 or 5 meters away, you can add back the wrap verbals to get the turn on the wing (that will be easy for her).
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>Bloopers abound for you on this one.
Bloopers are the best part! But there were really not that many bloopers, it went really well! And you had great connection and a lot of reinforcement , with is critical.
>>First, he wants to move the instant I say a verbal. I tried to keep holding him and lowered the intensity of my verbals, but am not sure if this is working or if I should try something different. I don’t want to turn it into any tension between us, but he’s pumped to go.>>
Part of what was happening was that the first reps were verbal and release simultaneously, so he was expecting that. But then a 1:01 and 1:10 and most of the reps after that, you repeated the verbal before the release and he seemed pumped up but happy! Note the wagging tail 🙂 and he was not flailing. So I don’t see any tension and I didn’t see him fail, so it is all good 🙂
>>The next consistent thing I felt was that sometimes his wraps feel really smooth and sometimes I feel like I’m running up on him, and previously I felt like I was stopping short. LOL So I’m not sure how to find the sweet spot or perhaps there’s another aspect???
It is the magic sweet spot of decel that is missing a little 🙂 On the wraps, you were sometimes slamming the brakes which was leaving your dog-side leg behind you and you were slightly rotated… which pulled him off the win like at 1:14, 1:50 and 2;32 on the wraps, and also At 1:42 and 2:04 on the soft turns.
On the wraps, if you drive in a little more and decelerate and let him get past you… then rotate and leave… you will see more commitment in those moments. Don’t worry about how tight it is, and don’t worry about getting to the next spot 🙂 because that is causing a bit of rushing. Part of this game is getting some distance on the dogs too!
On those soft turns, your dog side shoulder was way back, which was causing rotation and pulling him off (and pulling you away from the line. You were using a lot of extreme connection there and that is what was causing the shoulder to be too far back. You can watch his eyes rather than stare at his eyes, and allow your dog-side arm to follow his nose – that should be the right amount of connection for him. You had this at the every end and he looked great!
>>Third, turns were sometimes wide out of the tunnel. So in addition to fixing late verbals ;), let me know if my lines or amount of motion are off.>>
What I saw on those moments was that you were running the lines with him, rather than cuing and leaving. That was making you late for the wraps on the straight line exits (which is why you ended up slamming on the brakes) and was also showing him a physical cue that didn’t match the verbal.For example, at :44 with the left verbal – the timing was good but the physical cue screamed GO GO GO as you accelerated to kind of meet him at the exit. The same happened at :55 and 2:01 – the right verbal was a little late, but the physical cue was all go go go (you were accelerating forward) so he went wide on the exit.
So, say the left or right verbal but also let him see the matching physical cue of you peeling away to the wing instead of running straight. Otherwise, he will have to choose one (verbal or motion) and motion will win :). You might end up decelerating at the wing after the tunnel, but that is great and help build up the patience of decel without rushing.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Ugh, more snow!!! The music was actually hilarious in your video with the sad dog noises LOL!
>>For the live class this week, are the setups small enough that I could do them down in the basement like I did the first week?>>
Yes – I will have small space games ready because several folks are still wrestling with winter, like you are.
T
