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Good morning!
>I am still having difficulty doing any posting from my phone. I get an error and it won’t load the page regardless of what browser I use. I am able to post from my computer.>
Sorry to hear it is being a pain! Is it an iPhone? There was a recent update that is causing trouble with YouTube, even if you didn’t directly update the phone (something that Apple did) It takes a few days to settle back to normal (plus I cleared the history etc on my Mac and the miscommunication with YouTube went away).
Let me know if it is not an iPhone, and send a screenshot of it so I can pass it along to tech – the site all works well on my Android phone and PC, probably because they are Google-powered and Google owns YouTube 😆
The parallel path went great – she was locked onto the jump and appeared to be having a grand time 🙂 Next step: you are moving parallel to her path the whole time. This includes getting more and more laterally away from her line as well as starting with her so she drives ahead. Standing still at the wing should cue a collection, so keeping you in motion will support the extension.
Strike a pose also went great! She was driving into the serp hand beautifully and your reward placement was spot on!
You can move to the next steps, such as using a toy as the reward, and getting the reward to the ground (like an empty food bowl that you can drop a treat into)You can also use a stay, which will also allow you to start at different angles to challenge her approach to the jump.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Disconnected at :36 and 33:21 to throw so he did not know where to be when he exited the tunnel on the first rep. Wait to throw until you see him look at the jump: that will make sure he is committing to it and it will also make sure you are connected.
When you were connected at 2:07, for example: perfect!
Moving faster also seemed to be no problem – when you were moving straight, he was reading the line consistently well. When you were stepping to the side as he was on the way to the tunnel or when he exited (to get more lateral distance probably) he actually read that and changed his line! So you can set your line before sending him to the start wing so you can run on a straight line and not show any pulling away.
Good job on the rear crosses! Having to do them in a smaller space means the cues have to be clear and timely 🙂 You were able to get timely cues going – the first one on each side was late but then you put more pressure on the RC line and did it sooner, so he found the RCs in both directions, even jumping into the wall. YAY!!! I grabbed screenshots of the ones that were late versus the ones that were timely – note how if he is a stride from the takeoff spot there and you are still facing pretty straight he goes to the original direction, as opposed to the successful reps where you were putting more pressure on the line before he got to a stride before takeoff so he read the RCs. And your toy throws helped too!
Because RCs are hard and relatively new to him, he is still checking in a little by looking at you but that will go away when he has more experience and you have more room to run 🙂
Here is the link to the screenshots:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VXxGSTcguVGRlIYZDvFjCUKuGQ4sy3J4wja6rFSmkvA/edit?usp=sharing>There is no agility place closer than 90 minutes for me to rent. And that one is dirt. He has been on the turf at United Dog once.>
When the weather is more reliable, maybe you have agility folks you can meet to share a rental or lesson with? I wish you lived closer, I would totally share rentals! Does he still get to share time with Benni at lessons with Jess? He is at the age where we do want to take his skills on the road but the weather has NOT been helping!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Wraps and blind crosses went fairly well. >
Yes! Those looked really strong and well-connected! Super!
>Challenge for us was sending out to the top of the diamond and mini challenges with tunnel entrances.>
For some of her wing commitment questions, that was partially disconnection (looking ahead instead of at her) and partially the big distance between the obstacles – you might have feeling the pressure to take off to the next line, which was pulling her off.
>For the tunnel bloopers I think it’s because I’m racing to the tunnel entrance and then stopping rather than connecting and letting her commit to it before I peel off. >
Yes – and the tunnel entry is actually a little offset from the line so you might need to actually push her back to it. Or you can curve it a little more so it is a straight line to the entry.
I grabbed a couple of screenshots so you can see those moments:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K0f-Ioys-bN6eF4iQ_XROOadveopWzY96v0DCMI1VlA/edit?usp=sharing
>Seems like maybe I need to slow down a bit on all of these so that she is committing rather than me trying to take her places – does that make sense?>
Yes, makes total sense! You also moved the distances in closer which will really help too, because you won’t have to cover as much ground as while also maintaining all the connection a baby dog needs.
You can play with running without arms showing the line 🙂 Either pump your arms like a runner or keep one hand pointed to her nose the whole time. That will help with connection.
Another thing to play with it fewer, quieter verbals. When she has a question, the verbals get louder and more urgent – I read them as you giving the cues urgently. She might read them as getting yelled at, which is why she was stopping a bit when she had a question. It might have been too similar to the “momma is mad” voice LOL 😂 so try being really quiet and see how it goes!
>We started with food, which works OK. She’s not nearly as engaged as with the ball. >
The ball is clearly the top of the reward hierarchy 🙂
>I tried the two ball approach, limited success, she seemed happy to leave the one and play with the one I had, but unless I was able to pick it up (without her grabbing it first) it became a distraction on the field. >
That will be something we can work through – she did run past some no the ground on the video!
It is possible we need to apply the 2 (or 3) ball approach with a short session of an easier game. That way you can focus more on using the ball rewards with simple behavior that she will have no questions about. The smiley face game might be perfect for that!
>I also used food tosses to get it, but she caught on to that pretty quickly. Once it became a game of keep away we called it quits. >
Was that towards the end of the diamond video? That might have had more to do with the challenges in the diamond sequences and some frustration from that – she didn’t want to bring it back. That is why I suggest an easier game for now to incorporate the balls.
You can also just play games with the balls in the house where she starts to see how to earn the next ball, how to leave the first ball (pr bring it back) and how to eat food in between. That can give you both a way to sort out mechanics on the balls without also trying to get handling correct.
Nice work here! Let me know how it goes today!
Tracy
Hi!
The setup with the grid looked really good here with 2 bumps then the jump!
> Seems like it went well, including when I slowed down the video. Looks like low head and arched back. >
I agree! And good for you for slowing down the video to watch!
He totally cheated on the stay on the first rep but the jump form was really nice! He caught himself beginning to cheat later in the session (:50) but stopped himself – good boy!
For now, we are going to keep you out next to the toy and moving forward – there was one rep where you sent to the toy while you stayed by the jump, but that is a decel position so we don’t want him to extend past it. All of the rest had you out with the moving target toy, and those looked good!
It is possible that the distances were a few inches too wide, but that mght also be because you are indoors and mats have a different grip than grass. If you have decent weather, you can take this outside and see how he does at these distances.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! These are going really well! Only 1 sugestion for the mechanics that might make it feel even smoother:
Lean forward more and get your hand more to her nose level, and keep it there until she is just a couple of inches from it. Then you can step back and move it back to cue the turn.
That will build in a bit more decel for you both, plus it will keep you from being too early with the arm or step back. When you were a shade early with the foot and yur hand was high, she thought it was a throw back (like at :53 and 1:19)
The reps at 1:57 amd 2:22 were great examples of your hand being lower and the timing of the cue started just before she got to the hand – nice timing, nice turn!!!
You can also send her to the other wing from further away will mean you don’t have to back up as much 🙂 That will also make it easier to get your hand low and feet together to prep for the turn away.
I think she is ready to see the tandem turns!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well with the out versus going straight! No problem discriminating between the two cues, on both sides and with some distance added too – well done to you for making them very different. Adding the blind went well! It worked best when you were moving more, like at the end of the video. When you were walking then accelerated into the blind, he was surprised and the acceleration sent him a bit wide. But when you were running more, he was able to set up a nice tight turn.Mission Transition:
There was an emphasis on the Go cues here especially in the first part, which is great because he can keep learning about the joys of leaving you far behind 😂🤣
The decel and wrap verbal can start sooner: you were generally starting the decel when he was more than halfway to the jump, which is a little late but I can see why you did that: at :47, your timing was really good, he was maybe a stride past the start wing – but he didn’t commit. Hmmm! You adjusted on the others to be later to get commitment but we want you to also have earlier timing, so you can adjust the reward placement for the wraps. To help him commit when you decel without you having to let him get pretty close to the jump, you can throw the reward to the landing side of the wrap wing, nice and close to it, so he gets paid for committing in collection.He is turning really well, so it is not about the actual collection – it is more about teaching him to drive into it with you you having to get as close to the jump or wait as long to cue it.
The lap turns looked good! He definitely liked it better when you added the wing before hte lap turn 🙂 He read them really well – just be sure to keep your leg relatively still until he is almost at your hand. Stepping back too early will result in him thinking it is a throw back. That is what happened at :53 and 1:41 – your leg was really early which makes the hand a little early too, which turns your shoulders to the throw back side of the wing so that is where he went. You told him he was incorrect but he was actually correct 🙂 It was pretty funny at :55 where he kept going LOL!
For the lap turns, you can add more space between the wings to get more speed. And you can also add in the tandem turns!
The ladder grid is going well – the only real question he had was on the step in for jump 1: he pushed from the rear on rep 1, but on reps 2 and 3 he really pulled upwards and kind of lifted himself over the bar. It might just have been because he was a shade too close to the bar on those reps, so you can have his front feet about a hands-width away from the bar to see if that gives him enough room. The last rep looked better on the step in, but the first rep was definitely the best one.
He was a little pouncey over jump 5, but that was probably in anticipation of getting the reward 🙂 You can lead out further and move faster, both to challenge him and to get him driving out more over the last jump.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We’re gonna put the serps on hold to give me time for latent learning.>
Sleep on it! And it might make more sense in a sequence and not in isolation.
Zigzags –
>I was a little caught off guard with her speed on the slice jumps and very happy with the session.>
Yes, she was all in and flying, so you needed a moment to lock in 🙂
You can also start at the 3rd wing to get things rolling on 2 bars like yo did at 2:50 (instead of at the end of the 3rd bar). And you can use your feet too – you might be able to get her turning more if you are also stepping to each line rather than just using upper body. You did a bit of stepping on the last rep (3:08) and that helped!
The turn aways are also going well – one thing to be sure of is that you step straight back with your leg before turning her to the wing, rather than stepping towards the wing.
Stepping towards the wing made it harder for her to know where the turn line was like at 3:34. But when you stepped straight back like at 4:03 and on the last rep, her turn was quick and tight!
When you are using both wings, you can send more so you don’t end up running backwards 🙂 I think yout body was rejecting the idea of running backwards 😂 So you can send to the other wing from as close to the turn wing as possible, so you don’t have to back up much at all.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Sick for 4 weeks – oh no!!! I hope you are on the road to feeling better! And hopefully the snow is melting and better weather is ahead.
This session looked lovely 🙂 He is responding brilliantly to the ‘pass’ threadle cues, turning pretty immediately on the wing and looking towards the next direction (and not at the straight line to the tunnel).
When he was on your right, there were a couple of questions: at 1:21 and 2:10 for example, he responded perfectly to the beginning of the cue but then you were blocking the line to to the correct end of the tunnel (and were moving a bit straight towards the center of the tunnel, so he had questions about how to find the correct tunnel entry.
To smooth that out, you can be further away laterally from the before the tunnel, and be turned & moving to the end of the tunnel you want so you don’t block the line to it.
You can see the good line of motion you used at 2:59, 3:25, 3:52 by turning and moving towards the correct end of the tunnel. That was spot on in terms of making sure he could see the line you wanted – he had no questions 🙂
Two smaller details that will get more important as these sequences get expanded for more distance and speed: your connection was really great! When you really get running, I don’t think you will need an arm up to support the line (like from the tunnel t the wing). I bet you can keep your arm down (pointed more to his nose) and just run with connection & verbals. That will keep you moving faster and still showing clear connection.
He was great about ignoring the toy in your hand, but you can also put the toy in your pocket so you don’t have to switch it to the other hand during the threadle. This suggestion is only because it will make your hands quicker, not because he was distracted or anything.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Your mechanics on the strike a pose position and reinforcement were great, so he nailed it. Super!!!
Only one suggestion is to be clearer on the releases from the waits: sometimes you used the release word, sometimes he released on hand movement. So to maintain his lovely waits, you can get into strike a pose position, slowly put your target hand in position, then release him. That way he will continue to release on the verbal only and not on movement.
He looks ready for the next steps, where we begin to get the reward to the floor. I think what would work best for him at the start is an empty food bowl that you can drop the treat into.
>He seemed to do well here but tired quickly. I think I need to keep my time on any one task short to maximize Rusty’s interest and attention to task.>
How many reps did you do before he seemed to get tired? This session was nice and short and highly successful, so if his attention wandered it was too repetitive? You can break up the session with something exciting, like sending him through the tunnel 🙂
If there were a lot more reps, then yes – maybe do 3 or 4 reps then take a break. If those 3 or 4 were great, you can either do the advanced level or more to a different game to keep things interesting 🙂 If you want to do more reps of the same game, the little break will help keep him fresh to come back and do more.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I try to suck up to him just enough so that when AI takes over the world and has to decide whether or not to exterminate all humans he hopefully has qualms about taking me out.>
OMG ME TOO!! I always say please and thank you, and I give positive feedback because, well, AI is SMART and will eventually take over everything. I mean, I’ve seen the Terminator movies. Skynet is coming 😂 😂
Hi!
>So the 1 jump wraps with brake arm was working so well for us because the brake arm was forcing me to stay connect to her (even if I feel like my rib cage might need an adjustment to run that way!)>
You were really well-connected! The rib pain was worth it!
>And following the logic – Disconnection is causing the boing. >
I think it was disconnection plus deceleration. Motion not fully supporting the line and connection getting fuzzy, so she had BIG questions 🙂
>Rotating too early also raises red flags in her brain (the 2:40 example in the 2/21 video). >
Timing of the rotation would probably not be a question if your connection was clearer and there was no decel.
>I’m not sure if I have a good answer on the decel part of it. I was thinking she was protesting decel too early/too much, but maybe it was disconnection?>
Decel + connection = fabulous!
Decel + disconnection = Big Madz.Committing is hard enough in decel (organizing collection) but if the other part of the cue wanes (connection) then she doesn’t have clear info. So her brain doesn’t have the bandwidth to tune out the disconnect and decel in order to organize. Lizard (dinosaur?) brain takes over and she gets a BOING emotion.
> I guess I need to see if I can decel a bit for the transition, while verbal cuing and brake arm cueing to keep the connection, all while not rotating too early.>
She will cue you about when to rotate: if you are connected, you will see her fully lock on and begin to crunch into collection. That is your cue to rotate.
>And by early I think we mean in relation to when she is making the decision to take off and not necessarily me being close to the jump – because I definitely need to be able to (eventually) send her out for wraps without escorting her all the way to the jump.>
Correct! If you can get to the wings, cool! If not, the timing is the same and the connection becomes really important.
T
Hi!
I don’t hate AI, I actually discuss things with it and use it for science research stuff. It has some really good applications. I am also aware that it feeds to my biases and it is also wrong a LOT 😂 so I like it but I don’t entirely trust it for everything.This is wrong:
>deliver it before apex commitment
Not at the apex.
Not on the down plank.
On the approach stride that precedes the climb.>That is too late, he will need it before he gets on the board.
>You’re cueing organization, not correcting flight.>
This is funny, though LOL
>Tap-tap is already a really strong candidate.>
It is certainly the easiest to say while running, but you can run around outside and test them all. Hit will be HARD to say repeatedly while running fast.
>And yes — your instructor is right — this is musical.
You’re composing stride patterns now. 🎵🐕>HAHA! Thanks, Chat! LOL!
But testing it out while running will help you decide. Then training it in high arousal will bring it to the ring. How did you originally train the frame?
T
Hi!
>His natural stride is a 1 hit that hits just above yellow and it’s been a HUGE struggle to try to get a 2 hit in trials when his stride lengthens out and he’s aroused. Gonna think about that.>
As you work on his a-frame striding to get the relative collection, you can look at how you train it in terms of arousal level. To be able to access the proper striding behavior in the arousal of a trial, you will want to train at the same arousal level (or past it!). That is where I use something like the 10 tunnel game or other dogs to get the arousal level super high to train the behavior so I can also get it in a trial environment.
On the video:
He seemed to love the strike a pose game – the strength of his hand target skills played into that for sure. Lovely! Onwards to the advanced level, no notes here other than maybe try the baby level with a toy in your other hand 🙂>he’s less sure why he should drive into me for the lap turns if I’m just going to flip him away so he started to flank a bit. >
I was all ready to whip out the “ideas for getting herding dogs to drive in” but actually… it is a little tweak in mechanics and I think he will drive in perfectly! He was driving in nicely when you were just rewarding for driving in.
What was happening in the mechanics was that your leg was stepping back too soon, and your arm was not moving with it. By ‘too soon’, your leg was stepping back before he got to your hand, which meant there was no place for it to go when the hand did move to cue the turn. So keep your feets together until he gets to about 2 inches away from your outstretched magic cookie hand. Then the hand moves along with the foot stepping back. The hand will draw him all the way back then turn him away. Your hand was trying to turn him in place at your side, but the movement is more of a draw him back then turn him away thing, along with the leg. Let me know if that makes sense!
Nice job here!
Tracy
Hi! The lap and tandem turns are going well! The reps with food at the beginning looked great.
>Noticed that if I carried too far forward it caused her to have a wide turn as opposed to those turns where I wasn’t as near to the wing.>
Correct! The turns will automatically tighten up when you decelerate when you are drawing her to your hands. You can see this with the cookie reps at the end – the decel was there and so the turns were really nice! Being a little closer to the wing helps too, so you can send to the previous wing more to make it easier to get to the turn away wing.
When you were using the ball as the reward, she had a lot of FIRE so you had to move faster & decelerate sooner – no worries about the turns being a little wide. At 1:33 she didn’t see the cues for the tandem because you were going fast and not really showing the hands so she didn’t know it was coming.
On most of the reps, you were good about letting her get almost to your hands before starting the turn away cues. There were only two spots where you were a toy bit early (:54 and 1:09) so she turned towards you and not away from you. The rest were really good!
>Used two balls – took some time to get her interested in the ball I had. Need a better idea of the mechanics for this. >
She really seemed to be having a great time! When she is partying with the ball you threw, give her about 10 seconds then call her and let her see you bouncing the ball, tossing it in the air, etc as you head back to the start spot. That can help her understand that the party continues! You can sit on the ground if you want to but when she brings the ball back (or comes back without it) go directly to the next rep with the ball you are holding without asking for the first one back. You can pick that one up when she is partying with ball 2 🙂
Will it be less efficient? Yes LOL. But will it be a lot more fun? Oh definitely less 😉
>I edited out the ball victory laps and other throws as we would have a 10 minute video if they were included.>
Only 10 minutes?? That is a good start! And a nice workout for her, hopefully she was tired 🙂
Great job!
TracyHello and welcome!!!!
> In a tiny (22’) camper van with the puppy right as he enters adolescence. What could possible go wrong. 🤣>
OMG that sounds FUN!!!! Nothing will go wrong – Vibe is in Adolescence PreHab and will be perfect. I just did 8 weeks in the RV with 9 dogs, 2 of which were under age 2. We all survived, I think 🤣😂🦖
>This morning (pouring rain out) we did a mini version of opposite arm to cue collected turn on a single jump.>
This went great! He was super responsive to the brake arm, and not offended by it 🙂 His collections looked good.
> A couple of NASCAR turns but a pretty fair choice in this space.>
think that was mainly because he collected well enough to be able to accelerate after landing- but there was no place to accelerate to because you were right there. So the kinetic energy spread out a little 🙂 But if you take off and run away, he will drive around the wing with no problem.
>We’ll try to do the sequences if the weather cooperates.
When you do the sequences, you will have more speed so your timing will need to be sooner. Most of these reps will show up as late on a sequence – you showed the brake arm after he would have had to make a takeoff decision on a sequence (especially with taller bars). He is making his takeoff decisions at the exit of the previous obstacle so he can sort the next stride – which means you can start showing the turn info/brake info when he exits the tunnel on the sequence, kind of like what you did here at :39 when he exited the barrel. If he gets to the halfway point between the tunnel and jump on the sequences, his takeoff decision has been made and info that arrives at or after that point will be too late to get a good collection before takeoff.
>For the verbal characteristics discussion we are having in MaxPup I wonder if Zoom, Zoom for a-frame is not helping Rip have collection vibes -which he needs to not do a 1 hit. Long vowel sound. Thoughts? Ideas?>
When you say Zoom zoom, how do you say it? ZOOOOOM ZOOOOOM or more like ‘ZZuhmZZuhmZZuhm’? The z sound can be exaggerated so it is less forward, and the word can actually be almost whispered.
Nice work here!
Tracy
