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Hi!
Sounds like he did really well at the seminar! Super!!!!!!And the 3 jump session here looked really strong too. His stay looks awesome 🙂 and he is doing a great job with the zig zags!!!
>>He did well, though the off side he still doesn’t get – a project on it’s own I guess.>>
Yeah, but not a high priority at all. He would have to jump away from you to get jump 1, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to the dogs. Having him jump towards you on 1 like all the other reps makes more sense to him and he looked good!
Since this looked really strong and we don’t quite have enough moving target room, I’d say the next session is the 2 jump backsides, with a reward target placed in advance so he can go past you. That will also have more handler motion, which he is definitely ready for!
Great job!
TracyHi! This is looking great!!
She is finding the line really well and doing the proper zig zags 🙂 Super!!
The MM is helpful for keeping her head down. Ypu can click it sooner: as soon as she lands between 1 and 2, and before she looks at you.When you are going the other direction, try to also have something in the reward target before you release her (so she doesn’t look at you at all) or you can bring the MM to the other side too!
The next step is to flatten the angle, by moving the outer wings of the jump further from each other, an inch at a time. And you can also see if she will play with a toy as the reward target, so we can use it as the moving target.
Great job!!
TracyHi there!
Sorry about all the rain!!! But these sessions looked good 🙂
The magical cream cheese moving target works like a charm! Super!!! I think you’ll definitely be able to use that.And the head turning is looking really strong – he is really turning so nicely! His left turns might be a little better but they both looked really good 🙂
When is the rain scheduled to stop? I am excited to see the cream cheese target on the Zigzags!!
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Maisy was DEFINITELY happy to do this with you! And I think we are seeing jumping improvement already, thanks to your training. YAY!!!!Looking at the 1st set of sequences: I think the throwback options where you are rotated are terrific for her. She is able to get a nice tight turn AND keep the bars up!
You did a throwback on a low bar on rep 1, looked good! She ticked the bar but that was just her getting things sorted out.On the 2nd rep, you died a send but she was too close to the jump so didn’t get organized in time. You had her more settled and looking at the jump for rep 3 and again at rep 6, she was looking at the bar more, and they both looked good!
The other throwback reps (rep 4, rep 5) looked great! She was also REALLY strong with her jumping on the circle wraps on the backside of 3. And I think there was only one bar down on jump 3 (on rep 4) because you decelerated and threw the toy. When you powered through jump 3 (front or back) she was perfect 🙂
On the 2nd sequence with the threadley opening: She did well with jump one and was coming through nicely to jump 2 when you rotated. That’s a clear cue for her! And since you were already rotated, you can use a throw back on jump 2 (this is what I did with my big dog in the demo video) rather than rotate towards her to bring her in then rotate again to face 2. When you rotated again to face 2, she would brush the inside wing of jump 2 with her shoulder or bum (hard to see which it was). Jump 3 also looked good – she had one bar down on the backside circle wrap but that was towards the end and maybe an bout of fatigue? You can work on those in the other class too 🙂 But she finished on a perfect jumping effort there!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I don’t know him that well, but he looked pretty enthusiastic in the 2 reps here! Was he not feeling into it in the other reps? You can post more reps, maybe I can see why he wasn’t into as an outside observer.
On the first video, he was doing really well and found the line! When you were cuing jump 2, you were looking forward ahead of him so he knew it was jump 2, but he was not sure if it was slice or wrap. Try to keep looking at him and not at the jump, as you move to the outer wing of jump 2. It will feel weird to run forward but looking at him 🙂 But will work really well because he can see your shoulders better.
He found the slice nicely on jump 2! He looked happy to be playing with the ball and he held the stay nicely (even though he was pumped up!). You needed to be one more step past jump 1 to release, to set the line to jump to. He had a question because you were a little behind, but your connection was good here!
Keep me posted on how he is feeling!!! Looking forward to the next reps 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Lots of really good work here!!!
>> For the zig zags, we kept the same angles and the 10” height – she seemed fine – consistent, as far as I can see?
Yes, she did great! In fact, it looked like she was powering more into a center landing spot towards the end of the session, and not landing as close to the bars. This is SUPER considering we are giving her absolutely zero momentum to get into the setup!!!!
So when you come back to these on Sunday or next week, you can choose your next adventure: either the 2 jump backsides using this angle (with her starting next to you where the wings meet, so you can send her to the backside), or with the 3 jump setup and the angles slightly more open (because it is harder).
For the backsides, you will be moving and not that far ahead, so I suggest the toy already placed out past the 2nd jump (12 to 15 feet past it) for her to drive to as you move, because you are not likely to be able to outrun her to get to moving target position, and also we don’t want her looking up at the toy in your hand.
For the 3 jump game, you can do the lead out and moving target you did here with the 2 jumps, that looked great.
>> Later we tried the organizers with the wing again, this time with a toy. I felt like this was better – she was more focused forward, but still (mostly) able to sit! I missed videoing a couple reps on the right side, but they looked a lot like these.>>
YEAH! She did well here! The toy is the magic focal point, and extra credit that it matched the jump wing LOL!
When she was on your left… looking good! It was harder on your right at first (she even offered being on your left, which was clever LOL!) but you slowed things down a little and then she sorted it out. Perfect!
So next steps would be to move the toy reward more fully around the wing, and to add the jump bar in. This probably means doing it outside, so before the bar goes in you will want to refresh this skill in the great outdoors because things are different outdoors (and no cats available to help haha)Great job! Let me know how she does in the next steps!
TracyGood morning!
I agree, the zig zags went well!
>> With the same angles as our last session. I thought went really well, so flattened out the angles just a little bit.
Yes,that was the right move, he was ready for a bit more challenge and did really well.
All of the left-to-right reps looked strong! And he did have trouble with the right-to-left reps at the end (but not at the beginning, those were the reps you started with). Why did it happen? Could be the harder direction, could be fatigue, could be a slight change in how the reward was moving, could be answered D) All Of The Above LOL! He definitely was running more than jumping on those last two reps, and since it was later in the session, stopping was the right choice (any loss of physical or mental form is a good stopping place :))
>>One thing I have definitely learned from this class is that he is much more comfortable turning to his left. Would you expect this much of a difference?
Yes, it is expected and these technical jumping skill stuff tends to reveal the side preferences because the dogs can’t compensate and we don’t chalk it up to something like a late turn cue. I saw it in all of my dogs during training. It is really no worries – we humans are exactly the same and can learn to be more balanced.
>>Thinking I should get him in for a massage just to make sure something physical isn’t going on.
Because he is now in the stage of his career that he is doing all the big fast stuff, definitely have some regular massages – partially to keep him loose, and partially to make sure nothing is brewing that might be restricting his movement. My guess is that there is nothing brewing, but I am a huge advocate for body work for our canine athletes 🙂
So on his next zig zag session, you can do a quickie warm up on the easier direction, same angle, one or two reps… then go to the harder side and see what happens (this should take out any fatigue factor) If he still has the question, you can dial back your motion to a very slooooooow moving target or even being stationary. If he still has questions, you can open the angles up a bit to make it easier.
>> And some Organizers with a Wing. Took a bit to figure out how to let him know what the game was and sort of sort out my mechanics. I’m guessing you’ll have some suggestions on this one
The organizers with the wing are all about figuring out the mechanics and teaching the framework to both us and the dog – there is a lot going on LOL!!! The original conditioning exercises bring this to a jump right away, and I am like: let’s start on a wing so we can all get our mechanics together LOL!! That wing is a powerful visual as a thing to wrap, so he had trouble realizing he needed to sit on the platform which is currently a lower value skill – and hind end work fades into the background of processing a bit when presented with a powerful visual like the wing.
You did a really good job of setting up success with a big obvious physical cue, then fading it – he really had the idea by the end!!! I think the hardest part for him was when you were facing him – giving him a little more room to come in between you and the wing as a serp or recall to heel will help. But, we also address it in the slice games so you don’t need to worry about it here. The handler position facing the dog was mainly to get the dog to stop in position and you got it with you facing the wing, which builds us to the jumps.
Even as you sort out the mechanics on just the platform, you can count reps so he doesn’t do too many especially on one side. You can limit to maybe 5 reps then switch sides to keep him balanced and avoid fatigue.
If he can start the next session with the organization he ended with here, you can switch sides and do some right turns. Then the session after that can have the bar added in.Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyWow, Wendy, she is doing SO WELL!!!! Thoughtful, fast, organized AND holding the stay, all with the moving target happening. SUPER!!!!
I am very happy with this so I think we can move on again to the next step:
Definitely flatten the angles a bit more. You can repeat this session on a flatter angle, but also I think you can do the backsides too on the flatter angle. You can see the backsides version of this on the Course Syllabus page.
The backsides don’t involve a stay, she is starting next to you can you send her and move – this is good because the stay has looked really good, and I don’t want her to get mad about all the stays LOL!! So you can start her at your side with you both in the middle (where the 2 wings touch) – send to the backside so she jumps the grid with more speed and a harder approach. You will be moving forward the whole time, walking at first then build up to jogging then eventually running.
Because she is fast: when you do the backsides, you should have a reward target on the ground about 4 meters past jump 2. That way she won’t look up at you holding/throwing the reward, and you won’t need to try to outrun her to do a moving target.
Great job! Let me know how she does with the backsides!
TracyGood morning!
We have been SO LUCKY with this weather! Glad you got out to enjoy it 🙂This session looked great – he did really well with the zig zags at the angle, including with the moving target. The one oops moment was when you were on the ‘outside’ of the setup and he did really well when you were on the inside of the setup (the side where the 2 wings were touching). So you can stay on the inside, keep going with then moving target… and flatten the angles a little more, moving the jumps an inch or two flatter for each session.
With the jumps at this angle, you can also add the 3rd jump (same angle, same moving target) or you can keep the 2 jump setup and do the backside version of it! He has reached the point where you can choose your adventure 🙂 of flattening the jumps or backsides or the 3 jumps. You can choose a different one for each session, to keep things spicy 🙂
Great job here! Enjoy the seminars with Lee today! Keep me posted about how Coal does 🙂
TracyPoor buddy! I hope he is feeling better today. You can do all of these at a lower height so he still gets a workout 🙂 and keeps his body safer 🙂 Keep me posted!
Hi! I didn’t think the videos were too long at all – you were doing the in-between stuff like telling him how great he was, getting the cookies ready, etc, rather than doing 80 zillion reps. But it is interesting how quickly the dogs get fatigued here, it can be quite a workout! Some of the classmates are coming back from massage and PT checkups with reports of increased muscling and core strength, so that is a very good thing for all of them!
T
Hi!
Ewww the mud situation sounds gross! Fingers crossed that things stay dry for a bit 🙂The angles on the setup looked great and he jumped it well, no matter if you were ahead or he was driving ahead. Boring feedback alert: I didn’t see a difference in what he was doing on any of the reps, and there were plenty of variations presented to him in terms of motion, stationary, your position relative to him, etc – yay! It is good to see no difference and no questions 🙂 He looked strong. Was it challenging? Yes! He was having to think for sure. But he executed it really well!
Since this went well, you have options for the next session:
You can do this same angle, with the moving target reinforcement.
or
You can tighten the angles a bit, moving the outer jumps maybe 10 degrees or so (approximately, no need for a protractor haha!) He should still see the straight line through the bars, but it can be less obvious than it is here.Great job! Keep me posted about how he does!
TracyHi!
You are totally spoiling me with the front AND side views of the zig zags! Love it!
I think he is doing super well here. He had one question, at :28 on the front view video (:22 on the side view) where he kind of landed on the 2nd bar. Looking at it in comparison to the other reps, I think on that rep you were stationary near the last wing for longer, so he processed it as a decel cue and then when you started to move – he tried to change his organization and it didn’t work out in the moment. On the other reps, you were further from the wing (closer to the toy) and/or moving sooner, and he was GREAT. So keep being closer to the toy and moving nice and early.
>>I think one more session and then I can add the third jump. What do you think??>>
You can add that 3rd jump now with the stationary reward like it was here (same angle, it is pretty close to flat) or you can use the 2 jump setup with the moving target toy 🙂 We will eventually want him to try the 3 jumps with the moving target, so you can start with the 2 jumps and the moving target – and if a couple of reps go well, you can add the 3rd jump in that session and do a couple of reps with a stationary target.
The organizer game looked good!
He did really well with getting the cookie while sitting then released to the cookie dropping into the bowl in the first 2 reps. Then NOT getting the cookie in position and the cookie already in the bowl was a big direction at :20! But he fixed it and was great on all the other reps on that side.He had a similar distraction moment at :48 but did really well and was QUITE bendy when you helped remind him to take the bar and not just grab the treat in the bowl. He also did well with the wing wrap before it and to be honest – the best reps with the cookie already placed in the bowl were the ones towards the end where you released pretty quickly, before he had time to think about the cookie 🙂
So keep going with the wing to plank, and releasing over the bar as soon as his butt gets down on the plank. You can more the bar up to 14″ and also move the cookie target back towards the takeoff side by about a foot, so he comes around the wing further to get to it after wrapping. And yo ucan add in the backside wraps as well.
Great job!! Let me know what you think. He is making terrific progress!
TracyHi!
Really good work here!!!Ah you read my mind on the first video, I was just thinking we needed to move the plank over to get him to go directly over the bar and not to the ground first. Great minds thinking alike of course hahaha Great job getting it in a position where he could get over the bar directly from the plank.
At first, it was hard organizing!!! He offered the down, he had some scrambling… but then he got it. Yay! By the end of the session, and into the next session, he was much smoother. You were definitely on team fake chill here while he was working, and that totally helped.
>> He seemed to need more traction for some reason this time versus the other times. I will get a yoga mat on top of here for our next films to make sure he can push off properly. Maybe he’s going a bit too fast?>>
You can definitely add a yoga mat, but I also think he wants to GO FAST which is good! But we want him to organize the jumping so he was having to regulate himself, which is also good. And you might be hearing the power of his push off! But the yoga mat will be a good addition and I bet it will be helpful for him to move the plank maybe 6 more inches to the center of the bar.
the 2nd side went well too –
Keep having the cookie already on the target like you did towards the 2nd half of the session, and keep moving slowly – it was hard for him when you stayed in motion, that was when you got the downs instead of the sits. His sits looked good when you decelerated to help him so see if you can fade out the decel and keep walking oh so slowly 🙂The backside slices are going well too! I think he was a little mentally tired by the time you got to these (more distracted) and also maybe a little fatigued (by the end he was not organizing his rear as well). So when you revisit the slices, start with these backside slices! If he does well wit the first couple of reps, you can add in a wing wrap before it (both front and backside slices can have the wing wraps) for more speed into it.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
