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Hi!
Nice job getting right on her tail for the RC line! On both reps, you were very clear and timely so she read it well! Looking at the 2nd rep, for example: by the time she was arriving at the bar (but before takeoff), you were already on the new side and she had already turned her head/changed leads to make the turn the new direction. Perfect!
So you can add more distance between the wing and the jump to add even more speed! And you can mix in the GO reps and the backside wrap reps, to work on communicating all of the cues in one setup 🙂 

Great job on all of these!!!
TracyHi!
Looking at these in terms of the connection to cue the backside – the warm up and the first rep both looked super connected! You can use your dog side arm even less on these – the more the arm stays back and the more you look at her eyes, the better she will go to the backside. I know it sounds incredibly counterintuitive LOL! But the connection without the arm opens up the view of the line to the backside, so the dogs read it brilliantly like she did here :)
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Very nice backside wrap on that first rep!!! You were clear with your line and motion without rushing her on the first rep!
On the 2nd and 3rd reps, you started looking forward and pointing forward ahead of her (:29) so it turned your upper body to the front of the jump (and that is where she went). Compare to the first rep at :05 and the last rep at 1:06 – both of those very clear connection and your arm stayed back to her nose until after she was past you, so she got the backside really well.
So keep the connection going and arm back to her, so she sees your connection (arm pointing forward can block it) and that will help her find the backside wing.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Lap turns rely on mechanics, and you did a GREAT job with the mechanics here!!! You were VERY clear with the arm position, connection and timing, plus you also had your eyes following your hand as you moved through the turn. Lovely! She nailed it each time.And you get bonus points for doing it in sleet, I think! The camera was fogging up!
You can add in the advanced level of this (tandem turns) as well as add the wing wraps before it to get more speed 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! Actually, this went really well! The airplane arms were not too bad LOL!! But you will definitely feel more comfy with these blinds if you keep your arms in tight to your body (I bend my elbows and tuck the elbows into my ribs). I think you will also find it a little easier if you spread the wings out so you have a heartbeat more time to do the blind – your feet really wanted to rotate towards her, then your brain had to convince your feet to rotate away from her (the brain won! Yay!) but another bit of time will make it feel more comfy.
Excellent job with the connection!!! That is the most important element and you nailed it 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi! This session looked great!
Perfect transition from the loud drops to the stealthy drops, to the offering and getting the upright in. And you were stealthy about inching it away: I looked down to type something and when I looked up, it had moved! Ha! That is great!
She is a little more fluid moving to her right than to her left at the beginning when you had the upright in place, but then things evened out and she was fluid both directions. Yay! And she had no problem when you pushed the upright out further and further away. Super! The hardest part was keeping her searching for treats while you tried to reload – she likes the game so came back very fast LOL!!!!!
So since this went super well – next step is to have you repeat the process, but the big change will be you are sitting on the couch. Do a quick warm up/refresher with just the bowls, then get the upright in nice and close, and her response will tell you how quickly you can progress with moving it away: either it will be the easiest thing ever so you can move the upright away, or the change in your position will be very challenging so you will want to keep everything else simple 🙂 She will let us know 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did super well here too! The hardest part is for him to let go of the toy at the beginning of the session – you can totally trade for a cookie there, so he lets go easily. He doesn’t have that same question in the middle of the session, he lets go of the toy right away.He was touching the target really well. You can play with this with you standing up and with your arm fully extended away from you as well.
Since he did so well, though, this is a low priority because we don’t use this for a couple of weeks 🙂 You can move to the other week 1 games and we will revisit this later.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
This went really well – you were emphasizing the transitions from toy to food to prop and it looked great! He was able to touch the prop really precisely with his foot (that is one of the joys of slightly older puppies – they know where their feet are LOL!!). Halfway through the session, you had more cookies in your hand so you didn’t need to grab more while he was working, that helped a lot! And he was great about switching to the toy during and after the cookie moments (and also great about eating the cookies after tugging :))
Since this went so well, you can go to the next game – the Prop Sends from Week 1 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHello! Great to see you here! I think you win the award for Best Dog Name Ever. I love it!!!!!
Looking forward to more Brisket 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi! Could be a teething thing, or could be that she shallows it whole and then pukes it up 🙂 tiny tiny bits of cheese or meatball might be great!
And no worries about how far along she is – the more we learn about puppy development, the more we understand that going VERY slowly at this age is far better because we can set up so much more success!
TracyHi!
>>I was trying to move more slowly, like you said, but I think maybe I wasn’t giving her enough handler motion for a lot of the wrong entries?
I think the reps where she went to the incorrect end still had handler support to them (shoulders and feet facing them) even when you were not moving that fast 🙂 The correct entries had you turned to the correct entry a lot sooner 🙂
>>Also, she has learned to love tunnels, LOL, so we’ll have to do a bit of unlearning.>>
She will get it! We want the big tunnel love nowadays because there is so much distance work involving tunnels.
Starting with just the tunnel element was a good refresher for her – when you started with the wing, your shoulders were late and pointing to the tunnel entry you didn’t want (same at :45) so turn faster and sooner on those to NOT be facing the wrong end of the tunnel. A this stage we want body language and verbal to match more like 1:31 when you were turned and lateral.
To help her out, you can make your position and turn cues even clearer by starting yourself in the positional cue (laterally towards the correct entry and further from the incorrect entry :)) and send her to the wing from there. That way there is no accidental turning to face the incorrect end of the tunnel – you are already in position and won’t need to move fast to get there. You can also move the wings further away, to buy yourself an extra heartbeat of time to show her the cues 🙂 She is going faster than ever, so even one more moment to show a cue can really help 🙂 This is closer to what you were doing on that last rep, and she looked great!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! The cool part of these skills is that he seems to understand them nicely, so it is all about handler timing to show him the difference. That is exciting!! Everything looked good here, just some timing to sort out.
One general thing to add: you can say the left/right and push verbals several times instead of once – that will help them break through the other things that are happening so he can respond even better.
On the first video – the first RC at :37 was late because you were too polite in setting the line LOL! But the rears at 1:08 and 1:28 were great because you got right up on his tail to set the line. Yay! The last one on the video was also a little late (3:17) – you ran forward a few steps then got on the RC line, so he tried to adjust in the air and hit the bar.
For the push backsides on this video: you were setting the RC line at 1:52 even though you said push – so he took the RC. At 2:36 and 3:40, you started by showing the RC line then switched to the backside and he got it. You can be moving towards the backside line the whole time, from the instant you pass the tunnel exit – and if you get there before him, you can tuck in where the wing and bar meet til he passes you. You were running the line really well in the next video, and he was perfect in getting to the backside.
On the 2nd video on the other side:
Good timing on the RCs, right from the start. Super!!!!! I think 1:03 was your body showing rear and your brain thinking about backside so he was correct to take the rear cross line.
Your push lines here were all great –
At 1:22, 1:56, and 2:33 you never showed even one step of rear cross and he went directly to the backside each time. He is still learning to commit to the jump on the left turn backside wraps, so definitely keep dropping the reward on the landing spot, that was terrific placement! And as you move through – keep moving like you did but maybe more slowly and also look at the landing spot (not his cute face haha) after he passes you – all of that supports commitment to the bar.Great job! We are getting more rain this weekend but hopefully you can still enjoy some outside time to play!
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice work here – this game is hard!!!! She seemed to only have a question on the first rep of each thing: first rep of serp (took the tunnel) first rep of tunnel (wanted to take the jump). But she sorted it out nicely and your cues looked and sounded different, which really helped. The other reps looked really strong!
On the threadles – try to use less handling and let her find the jump without you handing to it by closing your shoulders after she comes in. Ideally, the in in cue means come in AND take the jump without extra handling needed, so you can remain stationary with your shoulders showing the threadle cue until she takes the jump (then reward of course :)) And then when you add movement to the threadles, keep your shoulders in threadle position as you move so that she offers coming in and taking the jump on the threadle side, without waiting for your shoulder movement. This can help create even more independence on the threadles.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I kept the reps short and she stayed engaged. I didn’t do any more than you see on the videos but did take out video dead space while she retrieved the ball, etc. I asked her to lie down in the grass in between exercises which she was fine doing while I reset the tripod and a few things. We took a slow walk around to make sure she had cooled off enough (it’s humid today) and then did the 2nd exercise. I think she’s still hormonal from her season so I’m going to keep on doing things this way.>>
That is great – and I think it is a good training lifestyle, regardless of whether she is hormonal or not: short sessions, fast, and fun!
The zig zags are going well! She is definitely sorting out her footwork! My only suggestion is to keep the reward in your hand til she arrives st it – because it is being thrown, she sometimes lifts her head up to track it (rather than keep her head down to look at the bars. Keeping the reward in your hand will keep her looking downwards more 🙂
This game can go into the general rotation – what I mean by that is if you want to work on a jumping exercises, you can pull this one out maybe once a week. No need to do it daily or anything at this stage.
Lookin at mission transition – on the fist decel on your left, she was looking straight for the GO toy, but the other decel reps were great! You were turning away from her on those rotations – try to turn towards her for a FC after the decel.
When you changed sides – you handled differently when she was on your right side here, driving harder to the jump and accelerating later…. Too late for her to collect so she was wide on those turns. I think what was happening was that on the other side (dog on left) you were decelerating when she was passing the 2nd cone. On the dog on right side, you were decelerating when *you* were passing the 2nd cone… but she was already ahead of you and taking off, which is why her turns were tight to the right and wide to the left. So remember to decelerate no later than when she passes that 2nd cone, and her turns will be lovely on that side too.
>>Since I never got to the get out in MaxPup1 should I go back and do that first?>>
Yes, before going to the proofing, work the Get Out from MaxPup 1 so she understands it.
Great job here!
Tracy
