[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Lots of great stuff here!

Front side wrap:

>>I used a bowl at the wing to try to get Street to stop focusing up on my hands so much. I think it helped with his organizations, especially on the right side.>>

Yes! This was helpful for him. The next step now is to move the bowl to the outer edge of the wing, then to the takeoff side of the wing, so he finishes the turn more and more.

One thing I noticed about his organization was that when he was on your right side (2nd half of the video) and was cantering into the plank, he skips on his right hind when approaching the plank (2nd rep 3rd, 1:43 and last rep). He did not do it on the other wide, but he was trotting in on those reps. It is hard to know why he is doing it, so 2 ideas for you:
– if you have a soft tissue person or massage therapist or chiro person, have them check him to see if he is tight or out somewhere, or has a trigger point. He might need something “released” or his pelvis straightened out 🙂
– add in a wing wrap before this setup on both sides to ask for more speed, so we can see if he does this on both sides, and if he sorts himself out. It is entirely possible that it was a organizing behavior and latent learning will kick in to sort it out.

The only other thing to add in is putting the food in target before the reps starts (or at the latest, before the release) so he is looking down more.

Front side slices:

These looked really good too. As with the front side wraps, the only suggestion is to have food already in the target bowl before the rep starts so he doesn’t look at you as much 🙂 It does add an element of challenge because he has to sit til released rather than dive into the food bowl LOL!

If he is fine with that, you can move to the backside slices 🙂

>>My aerobic step does not have a deep enough cutout underneath to straddle the leg of the wing. If you look closely, you can see that the step is slightly tilted in the set up. I do have another set of “legs” for the aerobic step to make it taller. It is currently 4 inches tall and would be 6 inches with the additional legs.>>

I thought the slight tilt was fine, he didn’t seem to have any questions. But you can totally try the other legs and see how it goes – and the bar can go up to 8 or 10 inches too!

He definitely liked the action of the backside zig zags! The left-to-right lines at the beginning were particularly strong!!! The right-to-left lines were harder for him… maybe because right-to-left is harder, or maybe because he was physically tired, or both 🙂 The pretty flat angle on the last 2 reps was definitely hard so he was adding strides.

There were 9 reps total here – you can structure the session to be easy-hard-easy by doing 2 reps left-to-right (hard angles), then 2 reps right-to-left (easy angles), then 2 reps left-to-right (easy angles). Over time, you will be able to get the hard angles to be easy, so everything will be more challenging without depleting him. Let me know if that makes sese!

Great job! Fingers crossed for more days with no rain 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Based on her response, this is the correct setup! She was zigzagging beautifully here. You don’t need to handle as much by changing sides, you can stay on one side or the other (your started with her on your right here and ended with her on your left, so you can be either all dog-on-right or all dog-on-left). At this angle of jumps, you can also add in jogging, she looks ready! And you can start to ‘flatten’ the angles a bit too by moving the outer wings away from center.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
So much good work here, and a big insight!!!

Plank to wing is looking really good on the right turns is looking good! He was pretty straight. He strides like a big dog, so the early sit cue relaly helped him. Adding speed? No problem. And the reward target heled him keep his head down.

On the left turns (2nd video) I see what you mean about him coming in a bit more angled. I think this is him shaping his line a bit, which is fine. Part of it has to do with the cookies (“MUST WATCH COOKIES I AM STARVING” ~ Grumio) and part of it might be that it is harder for him to turn to his left, so he is sorting out the mechanics.

And that is great – when the dog plays an active role in sorting out their turn mechanics, they end up faster and more powerful than if we demanded they do it a certain way. I know this because we literally put timing lights up on sequences where we demand a certain turn versus letting the dog shape the turn a bit… the dogs are consistently faster when we let them set up the mechanics provided they have the knowledge base he is using here. For example, my terrier mix, Hot Sauce, will never have turns that look as tight as a smaller bendier dog like a Sheltie because of how she is built. But, she is now an educated jumper at 4 years old, knows how to sort herself out and is faster than the dogs with the pretty looking turns when I just show her the line and get outta the way 🙂 I think Grumio will be the same. Will he look the same in his turns as a Sheltie or Papillon? No, he is built very differently. Will he be able to move faster through the turns than other dogs will, because he is educated and can organize himself? Oh heck yeah!

Adding the jump video:
On a jump bar, having the dog come in slightly angled on wraps is a good thing because it means they are bending. He started on the left turns here, and did really well. He was definitely angled but I think it was the combo of setting up the turn to the left AND the cookies. He was less angled on the right turns, so I think what you are seeing is the right being his stronger side and easier to organize. The left turn side is not quite as strong yes, so he is still learning to organize (the right turns looked more fluid for sure but both looked good!)

>> He also seemed to want to face the target, which he did and tried to steal the treat, but then was better at it!

This was more on the left turn side, which also fits my theory that the left turns are harder: it is easier to go for the treat target than it is to make the turn (smart!). He was fine when you tucked in closer to where the wing meets the bar, which protected the treats and helped support the bar a bit more.

>>Also, please note when apparently I had a piece of treat-looking gravel in my treat bag and he thank god refused to eat the rock.>>

That was funny! Good boy for turning down the rock LOL!

Front side slices – adding the stride on the ground was easier than pushing off for the lateral/sideways motion. Also note he is jumping to his left here, the harder side. To help him, you can move your position to be slightly closer to the center of the bar – when you were more visible in the center of the bar, he did NOT add the stride on the ground and pushed off from a good takeoff spot.

In the 2nd video:
On this video, he was jumping to his right, no taps of front feet on the ground. Your boy is definitely a righty! And the session was smoother when the treats were placed in the target before the start of each rep – plus that added a great distraction and amped up the level of arousal. He was really using his rear, the sits looked great even while you were in motion. Super!!!

So a theme has emerged, and helpful insight: you can add challenge sooner to anything where he jumps to his right. When he is jumping to his left, keep things simpler for longer and you can help him more too. Things will even out really soon 🙂 I bet you see this to some degree in handling too. Next time you run courses, track where he has trouble and my guess is that the left turns are harder than the right turns.

>> I rewatched the Zigzag – Adding Jumps video and you had said we should limit to one session and over the jumps 6 times once a week?

Yes, 6 reps or so, but I think I said maybe twice a week? I will go take a look – you can do the zigzags twice a week for a young dog, definitely not daily and definitely not 4 or 5 times a week. That suggestion is to protect the form and develop the strength, while letting latent learning work its magic to help the dogs get themselves organized.

>> So no wonder he was tired when I added the backside zigzags. If so, I will just limit to one session this time and make sure to make my reps count!>>

The zig zags are like plyometric ski jumping exercises side to side onto things or over things, or even some of the fancier moves in human ladder work – a lot more exhausting than it looks, in the early stages. But when form is solidified and the strength is in place, we can add more.

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Congrats on your UKI success! Now that the West Coast Open was a big success, I bet you start to see more and more UKI in your area.

>>We’re also trying to work in some startline leash on/off and end of run leash on here and there>>

I worked a TON of leash on/leash off with Contraband before he started trialing and at the beginning of his trialing, including in high arousal – it is a pretty important part of things an da great area of focus. I have found it MUCH easier if the dog also likes to tug on his leash – Contraband does not like to tug on his leash, maybe Ripley does?

Looking at the videos:
He is doing well with the organizer in front of the jump. The hardest part for him might’ve been going past the MM for the wing wrap LOL! The sits on the organizer were really strong and he was wrapping well! With that in mind, we can add more to this:

Using the exact same setup: You can incorporate tugging before and after, to ask the question “can you organize even when you are more stimulated?” I bet he can, so we can gradually ramp up the excitement using toys, and eventually toys will replace food.

We can add a bit more motion challenge by having you rotate through the FC of the wrap, as he is organizing for the sit. You would go to the wing, decel, rotate for a FC as he is getting onto the plank and moving into the sit, then release him to take the jump (move very slowly at first because this might be hard 🙂 And remember in this game, always stay on takeoff side of the wing because that is what cues the collection (going to landing side would cue a different takeoff point (extension versus collection).

He is stepping into the zig zags beuatifully! He is a little “head up” over jump 2, perhaps because he likes you better than the MM 🙂 We can solvethat by having a toy out there – either something big for him to scoop up, or placing it on top of the MM or a platform of some sort. And you can definitely go to the moving target toy drag when the angles are a little more open.

It was actually a chuckle that you were trying to get him to bounce by moving the wings closer/overlapping more, and he was figuring out how to add a smaller stride in there LOL!! I think the answer for him would be to keep the distance the same but open the angle a bit.

He did start to figure it out after 1:30 approx and went back to bouncing, but I think the wings end-to-end will be a better distance for him when the bars get taller. Start with the comfy angle then very gradually flatten it – if he adds a stride, open it up the tiniest bit.

With the MM or a ‘dead’ toy as the target, you can also begin to move (walking forward after you release). Thsi should also help him look at the stationary reward target moe and at you less. With the moving target, your motion is built in and so if the forward focus for the dogs, which is why we can move him to the moving target pretty quickly 🙂

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The backside zig zags are looking good! He definitely has no trouble with this setup and the harder angles.

>> think he ticked the jump standard foot.

I tried to see it in super slow motion but alas, too much floof haha! The deeper sound of the tick does make me think it is the jump foot not the bar (bar ticks are higher in pitch).

>> I am planning on going back to flattening out the 2-jumps on Thursday. With a UKI trial this weekend, I have 1 or 2 more opportunities next week before I hit the road on Sunday morning (Nov 6). Should I keep the bars down at 4in and just keep flattening the 2 jumps?>>

Gearing up for leaving for the Open, a couple of ideas:
leave the angles where you left them here, they are plenty flat for our purposes. Instead, we can focus on 2 elements in the next sessions:

– low bars, you running 🙂 Wheeee! On the front side reps, you can be dragging the moving target. On the backside reps, you can add more of your speed and leave the PT out there. If he is fine with that, maybe switch out the PT for the Nemo ball?

– higher bars, but without the running. You can raise the bars a bit but dont add motion yet. Try to see if you can get them to 8 inches or maybe 10!

I bet you can do a bit of both in the same session:
1 rep, low bars, you running
2 reps, higher bar, you walking (bar can be 6 inches then 8 inches on these 2 reps)
then 2 more reps of low bar, you running

If I am wrong and Kaladin thinks it is too hard, you can totally dial it back to one or the other, not both 🙂

If it is all SUPER easy without over-working him, you can add running to the higher bars but that is a lower priority for now.

The organizers were definitely fun to watch, he had a lot to sort out – most of it involving using his hind end to jump sideways LOL! But he did sort it out and the last reps were really strong!

>>had a lot more comic relief than his Zig Zag work. Bar is at 6in. After the first rep I watched your video again and realized I was on the wrong side. >>

I know the exercise has you on the landing side, but being on the takeoff side is also a slice jump so it was all good 🙂

>>Then I said sit too soon so he sat before the plank…. >>

Ha! He is so literal, always has been LOL! I believe I was saying “hop it up” to a couple of my dogs to tell them to get on the plank, so I didn’t have any sitting before the plank so feel free to add that type of ‘get on the thing’ cue 🙂

>>then too late and he ran right through and over the bar.>>

He wasn’t wrong about that LOL And he clearly had watched the videos about fading the organizer plank 🙂

>>Is he supposed to be putting his front feet down off the plank on the takeoff side before slicing over the jump?

Ideally, no, we don’t want feet on the ground at all til they land. Dogs sometimes do it to sort out how to use the hind end, and I think that is what he was doing when he put his front feet down off the plank before takeoff. But then by the end like at 1:27 and 1:39, he was great about NOT tapping his front feet (he was pushing more from the rear on those reps, which is what we want.

>> I think I saw that happening in your demo video, but he preferred to go from plank straight to over the jump.

In the early sorting stages, they might do it a little- I moved the plank closer to there was no room to d it 🙂 And you can practice the release with the wing only (no bar) as the warm up to remind him to use his booty.

>> I was going to go back to the front side wrap with a bit more of my motion on Thursday>>

Perfect! Keep me posted! great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
It sounds like you had a great USDAA weekend!!!!

Nice session here!! He has the idea of bouncing on these zig zags and seems pretty balanced in both directions (maybe right-to-left is stronger than left-to-right, or maybe I need more coffee? He is pretty balanced), so now we can start to make things even more exciting 🙂

The first thing I want to see if we can get him to do is to take off from his sit and NOT tap his front feet before the bar. It might be too hard with the feet of the jump (he is small!) but you can try moving him over so he is almost touching the wing. No worries if that is too weird for him, it is harder with the smalls to get them to do it because of the jump feet.

The next thing would be to tighten the angles with the stationary reward target (like you had here) for a session or two… and then open the angles back up to where they are in this video and go to the moving target, followed by closing the angles again. I think he will figure it out really quickly!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Looking at the Leading with the head video – oh yeah, he is thinking all good head turn things! By the end, he was looking for treats on the floor so it was not quite as good but I am happy with what he did here 🙂 It will be fun to see it translate to the jumps! You can add even more challenge by doing this for a toy – the toy will stimulate him more, so the question becomes: can you still lead with your head, Marshal, even when things are exciting? I mean, food is pretty exciting to him but the toy might be even more exciting 🙂

Distractions:

>>I know I make “distractions” on the course when I’m running, but it’s almost hard to do purposely do it! LOL>

You were great! The session was exactly what we want it to be: a light-hearted, highly reinforcing way to say to him: Please don’t touch the bar even when I am not perfect 🙂 I saw you getting in the way, being late, being wild with your arms – he was great. Since he is so motivated for food and toys, you can add in reaching into your pocket for a cookie or toy right as he is lifting off (that is a hard one for the dogs to remember their jumping while seeing LOL!)

Plank to wing video, and wing to plan to wing video:

These are also going well, I love that he is keen to try ALL the games 🙂

>>I also need to take that breath and make sure he’s fully on the plank before rewarding.>>

Yes, both with the wing before or it or just the plank – let him get set into the sit before you move the cookie hand into position. I believe he is waiting for the cookie hand to cue the sit, but we can easily get him to sit on just the verbal (and when he gets into position, you can bring the cookie hand out). That extra moment to take a breath will help balance the sit independently of your movement (eventually you will be moving the whole time).

>. After watching the video I know I need to lower the treat a bit. Too high and it puts him off balance and slips off the plank.>>

Also yes – you will want to feed him with his nose no higher than the top of the wing. Your wing is a perfect size for that – if you feed with his nose in line with the top of the wing, you will have a perfect, balanced position. If his nose and chin are higher than the top of the wing, he gets off balance.

Looking ahead at next steps:

When he will sit on the sit verbal and doesn’t need a hand cue, the next thing you can now add is to NOT feed in position anymore. Instead, release to come around the wing and the reward can be in a reward target like a food bowl on the ‘takeoff’ side of the wing. So the rep would be:
get on the plank – sit – – take a breath to let him fully sit – release to go around the wing – toss a cookie into the reward bowl (or use a Manners Minder, and eventually a toy but that might be too exciting for now). That adds more movement and challenge by asking him to get in and out of the organization even faster.

My guess is that he will be doing that in the next session, so you can then add the rest of the jump and the low bar to move to the next step too. Yay!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

It is great that you have this indoor place for winter training! Yay! These sessions looked good!

>>need to focus on placement to keep head down for both of these.

Yes – my suggestions after watching the video were both about reward placement for head position.

On the zig zags: do you have wings to add to the jumps? That will help with clearer visuals for her and also pave the way to the backside game, because backsides will have wings to go around to get to the bar. The left-to-right was easier for her than the right-to-left (that is when she went around jump 2) so you can open the angles a bit when her right shoulder is parallel to the bar, and leave them tight when the left shoulder is parallel to the bar.

She is doing really well, so the main thing now is the toy placement: always have it on the ground, at least 10-12 past the 2nd jump. before you release her to help rehearse the head-down form. When it was in your hand, she was jumping the grid with her head a bit too far up. So do the toy on the ground on all of the reps of the next session – and when that goes well, you can go to the dragging toy (moving target :)) And one more suggestion – don’t face her on the release, face forward like you did at :35 – that will get even more propulsion and facing the dogs tends to cause them to slow down or add strides.

Looking at the leading with the head video – I think that toy might be a little too exciting LOL!!! She was offering a lot of behavior… but not really turning her head. 🙂 She was having trouble ignoring it when it was *right there*, so you can add two things to this game:
– using food primarily 🙂
– add in the toy in between food rewards, to get her arousal high so she can still lead with her head when she is pumped up… but after a little tugging, put the toy back in your pocket so she can focus on the task (for a cookie reward).

I bet eventually she will be able to do it with the toy in your hand, so the cookie-then-toy can help get her there.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>So last week I video tapped a zig zag and thought he seemed off. That was the 3rd time that thought had crossed my head so I took some time off.

That is interesting! Do you have the video? I would love to see it: sometimes there is something “off”, or sometimes the dogs just don’t get it at first and we need to help them with bigger handling cues or a bit of the wire like you did. I used HUGE handling cues to get my dogs to understand it at first, including some foot rotation.

>> I am keeping an eye on him still and he has a massage tomorrow so I will ask her to feel around.>>

Perfect – ask the massage person to take a look at his left hind and see what she feels or how he reacts. I suggest that because he was protecting it a bit – note how he rolled onto it at :26 and was also to a lesser extent at :59. So there might be something that is ouchy?

I think the stay was the hardest part for him LOL! But in this session, he did well sorting out the game. He might have so much value on wrapping wings tha he needed a couple of sessions to sort out what he was supposed to come to your hand. Feel free to use BIG gestures LOL!!! Don’t be subtle 🙂

>>I don’t think I chose the best angle to see his lead changes. Also still not sure he is using his leads correctly.

The angle was good! When the wings are really far apart, it is harder to see his adjustments but when you moved them closer, he was doing a good job of shifting back and forth. If you move them even closer, 4 or 5 feet apart, you will see things even more clearly 🙂

One thing that will help: if the massage person finds nothing ouchy today, you can help him get organized by having him use his sit platform for the stay! That way he will hold his hind end in tight rather than roll on a hip. But wait to see what your massage person says before we do more – definitely keep me posted!!

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

This is looking really good! I think the hardest part for him was holding the stay LOL! You did a great job with the setup next to the wing and he was strong with the lead changes without the bar, and with the jumping when the bar went in.

Since this looked so good, yes – move to the next steps:
– yes, onwards to the 2 jump game! Since he is young and big, start with the bars at 8 inches so he doesn’t have to think too hard about the height and can focus on all the other pieces. Be sure to have a reward target on the ground so he doesn’t look up at your hands 🙂

– as an added challenge, you can also try this flatwork game without a bar, but with the wings 4 feet apart then 3 feet apart. That will add an element of “fast feet” for him, which is always good as we add more speed to all of it 🙂

Great job! Have fun with the next steps!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! This looks really good! Even Dr. Cat seemed to give his approval.

Watching the tiny details, she was tending to move her right hind out a little, so that is something to keep an eye on so we can get it strengthened and balanced. It is a really tiny difference. Definitely keep rewarding, but it is possible that the right hind is not as strong as the left hind (which only moved out once). She did well with the various angles, and with more speed. Yay! You can move to NOT rewarding in position: she gets up, sits, you toss the reward off the plank with a ‘get it’ marker (to one of the angles), lather, rinse, repeat a few times 🙂 That adds even more of a plyometric element to it.

She is ready to see the plank work with the wing and jump – you can drag it to class with you, as a warm up tool even fi you don’t get it to the wing (but you can also do it on the wing if there is a warm up jump). Just a couple of reps to warm up, otherwise we risk depleting her for her class runs.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
I am glad he had a successful weekend, especially with lots of birds and no holes 🙂 Yay!

Lead with the Head is looking good!! Great job with your mechanics and rewarding. This is a good one to keep in your training rotation: he is a powerful, forward dog so the more you reward him to turn his head, the more it will happily blend into his turn skills. You can revisit this came once a week or as a warm up for other sessions – the next time you play, you can back up a bit more so you are 5 or 6 feet from the wing. Cue the wraps like you did, and you can even use as clicker to mark the instant of head turning (which should be easier to see when you are further away and he has to make a very distinct turn back to the wing). Starting further away will also allow you to add more speed into the skill, and mark that very first head turn on approach to the wing.

He was fantastic with the short spacing on the zig zag flatwork wings! 4 feet? No problem. 3 feet? Also no problem. SUPER! Quick feet!

>>A few times he was really looking straight ahead instead of at me, yet he still serped the wings.>>

Yes, he was a good boy! The only thing to add to this game (and the others) is to try not to use a ‘yes’ marker because it causes him to look up at you, which we don’t want in the jumping work. Instead, you can replace it with a ‘get it’ marker to drive to the thrown (or placed) reward. I try to use a get it for these things, even though a ‘yes!’ slips out sometimes LOL!

Zig zags with bars also went really well! He read the line well and that is the most important step. So now, you can make two adjustments to add power:

– line him up parallel to the wing and bar of the first jump, rather than facing the center of the bar of jump 1. So when he is on your left in this setup, for example, his left shoulder will be right next to the wing (and his front feet still relatively close to the bar). This adds the element of powering to the side for these slice jump efforts (on the last rep of the video, he was really getting it and also didn’t tick the bar on that one :))

– add a reward target on the ground, about 10 feet past the 2nd jump. He was looking up a bit at your hand (because, cookies are delicious LOL!). The target on the ground will help lower his head which produces more power in the jumping. At first, you can start with a stationary reward – a bowl of food, or Manners Minder if you have one. Then a stationary toy (something big so he can just scoop it up). If he is still organized with the toy… then we will add the moving target. This might happen all in one session, or in a couple of sessions: let his form guide you as to how quickly you can add challenge 🙂

>>but on the video I hear his nails ticking the bar.

I slowed the video down to try to figure out which foot was ticking, and I believe it was his inside hind leg (right rear on your left, left rear on your right). So because it was not front feet or not the same foot every time, it is an organization/balance/power question and he will figure it out 🙂 He was already figuring it out on the last rep.

You can also try this on a 5 foot bar so he has a little more room – it is possible that he was dropping the inside rear because the 4 foot bars didn’t give enough room in this grid. Figuring out the correct distance on this grid needs some experimenting – since he is big and powerful, he might need a 5 foot distance.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

It was a smart idea to begin with some bounce grid reminder work for her! The 3 jump grid you had set up was a bit too small for her current size. The distances between the jumps were more of a cavaletti (trot) distance for her, so you can expand this grid to have a minimum of 4 feet between the jumps, with bars no higher than 8 inches. You will see her really begin to bounce and then you might need to expand to 4.5 feet or 5 feet as she gets more powerful.

I think she is off to a good start in the zig zag reps her – it looks like she went around the 2nd jump on the first rep because of the pressure of you standing in her landing spot. She is able to bounce the distance you had here, which is great! As the angles get flatter, you might find that you need to overlap the wings more to shorten the distance between the jumps a little.

The most important tweak, though, for both the regular bounce grid and the zig zag grid will be to get the reward on the ground and not in your hand, so she is driving forward with her head down. The reward in your hand was pulling her head up, which inverts the jumping form.

So, start with a stationary reward target like a Manners Minder placed 10 feet or so past the 2nd jump. You will lead out to it and stand still, clicking it after you release her and when she is jumping the 1st jump (yes, the first jump, to try to convince her to look down and not up :)) Do that do a few reps, and if she is driving to the reward, you can delay the MM click until she is jumping the 2nd jump.

At some point we will also be going to the moving target, but that will be after she has experience powering through to the stationary target.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
His pounce on the lotus ball was adorable on the first rep! When it was really moving, he was good about not moving properly and not pouncing, especially when you used it on the jump.

Since it went so well, you can add it to the zig zags with the 2 jumps! The zig zags are complicated from the dog’s perspective, so use an 8 inch bars as he learns to sort himself out 🙂 And since he has a long stride, lead out 10 feet past the 2nd jump and start to move as soon as you release.

>>Consistent desire for toy play is something I definitely need to build with this boy. Some days he’s a tugging fool and then the next day it’s hell no. I don’t want to do that – something I need to figure out>>

I agree that consistent interest in tugging is a helpful thing for training! Have you seen a pattern to it – will he tug at home but not in class? Will he tug when food is around? Also, will he tug more when you throw the toy or drag it for him to chase? A pattern will emerge and then you can get it figured out 🙂

Great job here! Onwards to zig zags!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
She is doing well on these! It is a challenging skill and se is sorting it out nicely!!! I like her head position and also that she is NOT taking any extra strides anywhere.

>>She’s landing really close to the first jump and while she’s bouncing, it doesn’t seem well-centered. Does that matter?>>

Yes, and no LOL!! She is learning to power off her rear, so she might take a slightly different landing spot on jump 1 and it is fine. Also, you can change a couple of small details to help her power more:
– move her start position further back, so she shoulder is right next to the wing, more like where she was at :06 (her other starting positions were a bit too far forward).

You can go to the moving target reward, so the toy will end up being further from her landing point and you will be facing forward & moving forward.

You can also overlap the wings by another 6 inches but I think we don’t need to do that yet – I bet she sorts it out as the toy starts moving and the angles flatten a bit more too 🙂

Let me know how she does in the next session! Then we can add even more challenge 🙂
Great job!
Tracy

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