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Hi!
She is looking confident here, so you can add in the teeter to this (if it can be lowered or you have a higher table) after showing her the mountain climber games. One thing you can do it have the reward placed out at the end of the board or on the table just after the end of the board. That way she won’t watch your hands as much as you move along or past the board.>> I realaized that perhaps c’s getting on mid plank several times during our session was not good.>>
Yes, ideally, she always gets on straight so for now, ask for easier angles of entry so she is not tempted to shortcut to the top and get on in the middle LOL!
This is a game to revisit here and there, after starting the mountain climbers. She looks really confident and was using her hind end nicely, to line herself up 🙂 Super!!!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyThis video is the same as the blind cross rep, can you resend the link to the lead out pushes? Thanks!
Hi! This blind cross looked strong! His stay was good, so keep rewarding it when the toy is involved.
And yes, plan your mechanics: have the toy already in the hand that will go across the body, so he can see the connection sooner and make a tight turn – the wideness was just late connection 🙂
T
Good morning! Fun session here!!
>>Needless to say there was more play than work,>>
Yes – and I think this is the right balance!! There should ALWAYS be more play than work. And Susan Garrett used to have a saying along the lines of Play = Work = Play. So all work should be play, and there should be tons of just playing. That increases the quality and understanding of the ‘work’ elements 🙂
He did great! It was a little too distracting at first to have the other dog right there – but good job getting him back to play! Yay! Then the other dog was no longer a distraction. Perfect!
For the handling – really good work! My only suggestion is to give him a better line up position for 1-2 to smooth it out – on the first rep, you were a little too angled and didn’t lead out enough so he didn’t see the line. You had better lead outs on the next reps, but line him up at 1 so he is on a slice and can see 2 as a straight line. You were generally standing where he needed to be, so he was facing 1 straight and had to turn to find 2. The rest looked great!
My only other suggestion here is that more work is needed on the stay behavior when a toy is involved (this does not mean you should use more food :)) Just practice stays when using a toy because he simply doesn’t understand them with a toy and when arousal is higher. So do shorter lead outs, and release to tug, throw the reward back to him, etc – but set him up for success more so that he can have a higher rate of success on the stay.
>> Going down again Thursday, maybe more work?
Definitely not more work 🙂 This balance was good! More reward for the stays, different fast & fun sequences. Keep it fun like this!
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Wow, this session was fabulous all around. I felt that you were connected, focusing on mechanics, and not trying to go fast – letting her take care of the speed, you just provided the info 🙂 Looked LOVELY – she was accurate AND fast. And the bars were 14 or 16 here? Jumping looked good!!!! I think there was one bar down on the last jump on one of them, due to the timing of the toy throw.
My feedback is going to be a bit boring hahaha because it was all SO GOOD. You emphasized mechanics and nailed it.. so she nailed it too. The FFCs and throwbacks all looked great, including the different exits. She mostly had zero questions because you had the connection and line of shoulders in the right spot at the right time. Click/treat for you!!
She had one FFC question, at :27 – I think it was just a small blooper where you did not have quiet enough of your hand visible, plus also on the previous rep, your hand was in position for a couple of seconds before the release. When you had your hand a little more visible and you held it in position for an extra heartbeat before the release, she nailed it.
Wraps – all looked super, excellent attention to mechanics. Nailed it! The most boring feedback ever haha! When you can add the tunnel, you’ll have more of a mechanics challenge because things will be moving faster. If you don’t want to use the tunnel on the grass, you can send her into a wing wrap to add more speed.
The rear crosses also looked great! You moved up the line more an she read them NICELY! One small detail – if you are a little ahead of her, you can decelerate a bit (hang out at the previous jump) to let her catch up before moving up the line – and in that decel moment, you will be facing the RC line. At 1:22, you turned and faced the right turn line then went into the RC, and that moment of facing the right turn line might add confusion if you are not quick enough to get onto the RC line. So always be facing the center of he bar, and you can decel for a moment til she just about catches up to you on the previous jump, before accelerating up the RC line like you did here (she read it beautifully and her turns LOOKED GREAT!)
After 2 rear crosses… VERY nice balance at 1:30 with the FC wrap towards you and also at 1:40. Timely, connected, great mechanics. SUPER!!!!
The shakey shakey hand on the “look look” threadle lead out was REALLY salient and she knew exactly where to go – followed by keeping your shoulders open to support the threadle line to the jump – looked great! And the balance of the lead out push after it? Fabulous!
So overall – keep going just like this! It gets harder to maintain this clarity of mechanics as we add more speed, but 2 things will help: planning in advance of each rep like you must have done here, and not trying to go really fast – just be clear. She will go really fast and it will continue to look great like this session did. YAY!!!!
Amazing job!!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I am so glad you finally got good weather!!
>> It felt a bit awkward. Dellin was brilliant at reading which side of the jump to take. >>
I agree, she read them all really well, and also the info was pretty clear! The FFC to the throwback is a pretty useful cue – chances are you won’t use the full FFC as much as you would use a threadle (where you are facing her) so be sure to practice the threadle a lot too.
>> I did put a leash on the ground to help me, but things still look a bit late on my end.
I think what was happening was that yes, you an turn a little sooner, but more importantly: You were releasing with the motion of you arriving in position and that was causing you to not be fully ready… plus she was beginning to release on that motion before the verbal release (aka breaking her stay LOL!) for example at :31 and :37 and :40 and afterwards.
So be super careful to not pair the motion of getting into the position with the release: Try to assume the position, count to 2, then release. And release with the threadle verbal if you are doing the FFC or threadle move (same behavior for the dog, so it would be the threadle verbal).
You can release with her ‘break’ word with the lead out pushes – she read these really well too, so start moving on these: release and begin to move, maintaining connection to maintain commitment. As with the FFCs, get into position, count to 2, then release so she does not begin to think that the hand arriving in position is the release.
>> The mechanics for the throwback were hard since I did not want to show her the “cookie hand” with toy, so I had to switch hands to make the toss going the correct way.>>
Yes, the hand switching was harder and was delaying your movement which might also be why things felt a little late – was she having trouble with the toy in your hand? I don’t have a problem if the toy is in the magic cookie hand and I think she would be fine too (it is not a lure, you were getting the behavior without it). You can squish the toy up so it is not that visible.
Or, leave it placed on the landing side so she has to run past it in order to get it – challenging! But she does have a foundation for this from the strike a pose games, so I bet she can do it 🙂
>>Am I standing too close to the jump? Even when my set up on the second side was causing her to zig zag a little.
On the forced FFCs and threadles, you should be close enough to the jump to casually reach out and touch it for now with a slightly extended arm (it looked like you were fine here). The LOPs can be close for now as well, but that position will vary depending on where the next jump is. And eventually we move the handler further away from the jump or the FFCs and threadles too, but stay close for now.
Great job here! You can definitely add in the jump before it!
TracyGood morning!
Double blinds are hard, but when you get comfy with them, they are so fun and useful!2 ideas for you to get these smoother:
– try to run a parallel line to the first wing… but further away from the wing. You were running right towards it, which is fine when all you need to do is one blind, but puts you too close to it when you need to avoid the middle wing (the 2nd blind was often showing her the middle wing). So try to commit her to the first wing while running a line that is a meter away… Then try 2 meters away! That should make it much easier and give you more time to get the 2nd blind in.– start that first blind sooner: start it when she is maybe half a meter away from the first wing, before she arrives at it, so you are finish with the first blind before she exits the wing. That will make it easier to get the timing of the 2nd blind (which starts when you see her finish the turn and start coming to the new line). You were tending to start them when she reached the wing, which made the timing of the 2nd blind much harder.
The added distance and slightly earlier timing will make these much easier 🙂
FC to BC looked easier and more comfy! Be sure to connect more to her eyes with your arm back after the 2nd cross on these (and on the double blinds) so that she knows that she should commit to the next wing.
Great job here! Let me know how it goes with the added distance/earlier timing!
Tracy
Good morning!
>> “I think changing the cat so I get soaked would help the tunnel entry with the rear”!>>
Add a couple of adjectives and adverbs, and then we had solid dog training advice LOL!
This session went really well! I admit to chuckling with the higher pitched GO when even the other dog ran in to check to be sure everything was OK LOL!! To Go verbal can be lower in pitch, more of a shouted range, kind of like the last rep.
The rear crosses on the tunnel are going really well – especially the right turn rear crosses. On those, you are getting just about across the line before he enters the tunnel (like at :19) so he exited the tunnel turning right AND you were far enough up the line that he easily found the next wing without looked back at you. Super! The left turn RC is not quite as far across the line when he enters the tunnel, but you were showing the pressure and he read it really well!! Nice!!!
He really only had one question – at :28 – after the left rear cross. He almost came into your hand and not to the wing, but I am pretty sure it was because you were a little disconnected and presented the right arm with the dangling toy – so he probably thought it was reward time, then realized it was not and went out to the wing. Good boy! So add a little more connection and the wrap verbals to smooth that out. And keep working the Go exits – when yo u and Karena was working together, one of you can throw the go reward so he doesn’t look back at all. When working alone, throw it even before he gets into the tunnel (or place it on the line) so he doesn’t look back at all.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, the heat this summer has been gross! Fingers crossed for a long, cool autumn 🙂The work on the videos looked great!
Rear crosses: These are going well!!
The 1st RC went well and she read it, which mean tthe info was good! Putting a little more room between the jumps, more distance, will make it easier but you definitely showed her the RC diagonal and she got it, Yay! The 2nd one seemed better in terms of showing the line, with you going in closer to the tunnel so you could actually set the RC diagonal sooner – same with the 3rd one. Nice! She questions it a little, because she is young – so you can add in throwing rewards to the landing spot to keep her looking forward.
Countermotion – totally agree, this is a hard one for the human brain because it all happens so quickly and ALL THE WORDS LOL! You and Chata did a great job! One small suggestion is to always start with a connected moment where you both look at each other, take a breath, then you send her (like at :28 and 1:19 and 3:45 in particular when you said ‘ready’). If you are too quick, she will ask questions and not know where to go (that is what happened on the oopsie reps where she went to the wrong wing – good jobrewarding those because she was still attempting commitment).
Also, on a couple of the oopsie reps I think she just couldnt’ see the wing. You can have the wings angled so she can see more of them, as if a bar was there and she is running towards the bar. The orange wings for example, looked like the outer edge of the PVC was visible and the lattice was not – so rotating them 90 degrees and having the lattice visible will really help (it looks like the lattice was visible on the purple wings, which makes it easier for her to see and harder for you to accidentally block the wing with you position on the rotations.
The race tracks looked good too! You can actually soften the connection a bit – you had your arms way back and very strong eye contact, which can actulaly get a litle too muhc handler focus. So try pumping your arms and running, while connecting 🙂
Great job here! She is looking fabulous!
TracyHi!
You didn’t have it squished at all, it was definitely a difficult setup 🙂 These videos were very helpful for sorting out what she needs: more connection 🙂 and all that gets rehearsed in the walk through because she is going so fast in the run.
On all 3 walk throughs: your handling ideas were really good! And the walk throughs showed what I call the “bones” of the run: what lines you wanted and what handling you would use. Yay! But that is just the beginning – before getting her out to run it, you need to do the faster walk through a few more times to try to ‘see’ her on the sends, the exits of the crosses, giving the verbals cues to her eyes, etc. When you were doing your faster walk throughs, you were going faster but not connecting, and that showed up in the runs where you were having to add in the connection at high speed, with the elf coming at you super fast haha!
And I think that was what bit you on each of the first runs: a little disconnection. For example, you were a little disconnected trying to send her to 6 on the first sequence and she didn’t go. On seq 2, the off course tunnel after 3 was a bit of a disconnection, where you turned forward and it looked like a tunnel cue (it is also a really hard skill there!) On seq 3, she kept missing the #2 tunnel because you were disconnected.
So I have an idea for you! Walk the course, make your plan, practice running it at speed… then ask Annalise to watch you run it or to be your dog! Ask her to tell you if she can tell what the course is (don’t give her the map LOL!!) She will probably give you excellent feedback from juts watching it – if she doesn’t know the course and can’t tell from the handling, then you need to be more connected 🙂
A couple of other little details to consider:
When 1-2 is a straight line, have her in her stay facing the slice line to 2 rather than straight to 1 which creates an additional turn to 2 – more like where you set her up at 3:30 on the 2nd video. (but 1 is on the other side in sequence 2 :))
On the really hard turns, she responds a little better to her name at this moment – you can call her as kind of a ‘heads up!’ then go to your directional: PROMISE! riight, riight… for example 🙂
The layering lines are HARD for her because she loses site of you a bit – so good job putting those bars lower, that definitely helped.
Let me know what you think about my idea of having Annalise watch your walk through! It doesn’t have to be the whole thing, it can just be the last time you do it. I think that will totally get you closer to your connection goals and then your One And Done goals 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
This is a great hot weather game! He is doing well, so we can gradually fine tune things to solidify this game even further. I am a big fan of the reset cookie for each rep, correct or not, because it keeps the game fun for all!When he is correct: try to use use reward markers like “get it” before the praise, so he knows where to look and go for the reward. Also, you can make tunnel and jump verbals sound different: even in a chair, tunnel can be pretty much shouted TUNNEL TUNNEL TUNNEL and the jump cue can be soft like it was here – the different volume and delivery will also help!
And when you have that going… remain motionless and don’t lean or look at the obstacle 🙂 There was definitely a bit of leaning happening and some eye movement LOL! That will help us be sure that he is processing the verbals and not subtle physical cues 🙂
Great job! Hopefully the weather cools down a bit!
TracyPerfect! The dog-side arm looked great in all the clips except for when you had the toy in your hand as the reward. So, toy on the ground solves the problem 🙂
T
Hi!
>>Karena had just let me know that something had been deleted in my post to make it nonsensical. I don’t even remember what my question was.>>
Ha! Did you ever play Mad Libs as a kid? It reminded me of this:
“Do you think changing the _____noun__________ so I get would help the tunnel entry with the rear?” LOL!
Hi!
He was on fire! Speedy and loving the toy!
>> I really want to have the toy in my hand, I changed hands 🤦♀️ Is that why he came around me?>>
Correct – at :09 you switched the toy which made getting connection late after the cross, then you were backing up a bit and he was just moving too fast. He wasn’t even looking at the toy, just trying to figure out where to be. So don’t switch the toy! Squish it up in you hand and leave it there, and keep practicing the reward across the body mechanics:
The rest looked great!!!
Tracy
