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Hi!
It looks like you went directly from winter to summer! At least the snow is gone!
>>but her landing spot seemed awfully close to the jump bar!>>
Yes, I agree. I think 2 things were happening here, maybe 3 things:
– she was hot and tired, so not powering as much
– she ws going to the stationary target, so she was not powering through but rather preparing to stopSo, try this with the moving target and see how she does.
The third thing might be the distance is too big to start this grid – or might not 🙂 Try it again with the moving target and cooler weather. What is the distance? 6 feet? It should be fine but you can also try at 5 feet and see how she does. Adding the 3rd jump definitely changes things for the dogs 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think what is happening on the RC is that you are pretty stationary to let her go past you, then cutting in behind her but still really close to the start wing. So she is driving forward to the jump really well, but tracking the throw of the ball to tell her which way to go. And, it leaves you way back behind behind her.
So, on the next RC session…. Don’t use a ball 🙂 reward with a cookie from your hand, on the landing side of the jump. What that means is that you will have. To move forward sooner – as soon as she is coming around the wing, you can start running to the center of the bar. And when she passes you, you can cut in behind her. That way you will get the RC and you won’t be left too far behind 🙂You only need to reward from your hand for a couple of reps to get you moving up the RC diagonal, then you can go back to a thrown reward. But din’t throw it til after she lands AND you know that she also made a turn decision.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
This was a good session too! Doing the serps and threadle with just a little motion was good start and adding motion ws good too. If you are going to add a lot of motion, you should have your serp arm out the whole time you are moving. When you were doing the serps like at 1:13, and 1;24 you had your shoulder closed til after the release, so he had to make a decision based on what he saw when you released then he had to adjust. He did adjust (good boy!!) but you might have noticed the wider lines on those. So have your serp arm up the whole time so it is visible on the release, no adjustments needed 🙂 And mix in a couple more rewards for stays he was a little cheaty at 1:12 we don’t want him to break those precious stays 🙂
He had a legit question at :37 – his line up was on the landing side of the jump, so he was correct to come to the threadle arm on the release cue (you would have needed a backside cue to get him to take the side of the jump you wanted. You can see it was a straight line to your hand. The other reps had better line ups and he did well!
Grab job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>was wondering if it mattered where the arc of his jump is or if we let him figure it out. >>
It does, but it doesn’t 🙂 We help a little but mainly we let him figure it out.
He is a little forward on the first rep, it caught him off balance. The 2nd rep was better (more organized and balanced) and the 3rd rep was different from the other 2 reps – he was sorting out where to put his feet. What this tells us is that he is still sorting things out and the needle is going the correct direction.
What is the distance? I think 6 feet is good, maybe 6.5 feet depending on how tall he is (how tall is he? LOL!) The one adjustment I would make is to lower the bars to take out any question of height for now – put them at 6” so they are just regulators and not jumps.
I bet he sorts it out in his brain before the next session 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>One more question Suzie and I were talking through and wondering about. It’s regarding the verbals when the dog is coming out of the tunnel and going to do a race track. A right or left verbal makes sense to us if you are going to cut across the middle using a BC or FC.>>
It depends on the meaning of the verbals, of course 🙂 I use left/right to mean the L-shaped turn we are creating with the blinds. So on this setup, the tunnel exit is a GO! I think I was saying go in the demos, I remember being really out of breath LOL! And for the middle wing on the race track, you can say a left or right if you had a dog that is a wide turner, or eventually you will just say jump Then it is GO to the tunnel, because it is a pretty straight line from the exit of the middle wing past the next wing to the tunnel.
>>We were also wondering how much it might be dog or jump position dependent. i.e. if the jumps are far apart does that change anything?
The further apart the wings are, the more of a “Go” it is. But these are definitely not left or rights, based on how you had it hsert up here.
Tracy
Hi!
This is going really well!!!>>This is definitely where I start to feel like I’m messing up his understanding.>>
Nope! You are just over-helping in spots LOL!
>>Left feels a lot more awkward than right and we’re both trying to guess each other more on the left.
First rep was great! The right side work is definitely more comfy for you, so you are running with less over-helping and a more relaxed, natural connection.
On the left side, you are over-helping with your dog-side arm waaaay back which over-rotated you and starts to pull him in. So on the first rep of the blind on your left, you were too connected, stopped moving a little too soon, then had to move forward which made you late.
So if you run with your arms more at your sides and a little back to show good connection, and not way back and extreme connection, he will read the lines better and you can be earlier.
I don’t think he was weaker on this side, just reading you correctly 🙂 When you were late, he turned when he saw the cue. So at 1:06 the blind started after he arrived at the wing. Compare to 1:13, when you were done with the blind when he arrived at the wing. You got the timing on the left blind at the end and he turned beautifully!!
So just keep your arms in a little closer so you don’t over-rotate and trust his commitment – when you see him exit the tunnel, you can start the blind as you move forward to the wing 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>One shows us being mostly successful. One shows us mostly not being successful. I don’t seem to have anything in between.
I think part of it was when she was jumping to her left at the beginning, then to her right in the second half – going to her left looked much easier for her, so you didn’t have to be as perfect in the handling.
Go the right was harder for her, so you can help her out by angling the jump towards her so after she exits the wing wrap, she sees the bar very easily and it is an easier right turn for her. And you can also help with a little wiggling or shaking of your serp arm 🙂
>>t shows our struggles when I moved the wing farther away. I just couldn’t get that part, so it seems we especially need help with sends.>>
So when the wing was further away and you tried to start in a good spot to be able to get ahed – she didn’t go to the wing? That certainly makes the serps harder! Two ideas for you:
– make a lot more connection and eye contact on the send to the wing. Look her in the eye and don’t use a lot of arm as you send. It sounds totally counterintuitive 🙂 but that extra connection totally improves the send!
– reward the wing wraps by tossing the toy past the wing when she goes. It is possible that the jump and your motion is higher value at the moment, so she doesn’t want to leave you to go take the wing. So, you can add more balance to the wing by tossing the toy out there when she goes, to help convince her to go to it 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Sorry the camera is a little lopsided – I broke a leg off the tripod :( I feel this pain, I break tripods all the time. I buy them in pairs now, fully expecting to break them LOL!
On the first video – the backsides looked good! It was a little hard to see your rear cross lines. He read it going to his left, but I think the rear cross pressure going to the right was a little late. Try not to say “go”, on the rear crosses, you can use your left or right cue to help him read it as a turn.
On the second video:
>>In the second video I had a hard time getting him off me. >>
When this happened, you got too far ahead then pressured into his line, so he (correctly) did not continue forward because he would have had to go through you LOL! If you watch it in slow motion, you will see that you were turning your feet towards the camera and away from the jump before he past you, like at 2:33, so he pushed off the jump. Compare to 2:57, where you ran to the center of the bar til he was past you then you cut in behind him and he got it (and on the last rep too). So to set the RC line, stick closer to the wing til he is just about done with the wrap, then you can start driving up the line, keeping your feet to the center of the bar until he is past you.
Great camera angle on the tunnel-to jump rear crosses! The first rep was late, so he didn’t turn away. The second rep was much more timely, so he read it (3rd rep too !and the last rep too! Yay!)
The push rep was all good on the first rep til you said “yay!” and presented the toy so be more patient there, and drop the toy in the landing side so he can learn to take the jump as you continue to move forward.
You were using “push” then “around” on those backside wraps – try to choose one to mean circle wrap, so he can get that info as he exits the tunnel rather than when he arrives at the backside. And the RCs can be left or right instead of go (because go implies no turn, only straight).
4th video – the RCs are going well here too! He was getting them nicely, but he was a little confused about the go directional (note that he would look towards you/straight every time you said go, which is correct) so definitely add the left or right instead of the Go on the rear crosses.
>>I need to work some more on backside pushes to get him a little more independent since I’m going all the way up to the wing to have him complete it.>>
Moving to the wing to show him the backside is normal and fine – make sure you don’t block the wing though! Your line should be to where the wing and the bar meet so he can see the whole wing 🙂 Otherwise, he committed really nicely to these!!! You can throw the toy behind you to the landing spot as you run forward, to help him commit as you move forward.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
>>I was questioning whether my arms/hands were doing the right thing on sending and leaving the wings, and also on racetrack, but sounds like that was ok? I was really trying to focus on looking back and connecting. So happy that connection and timing was good! Yay!>>
Yes! It all looked lovely!
>>Do you have a verbal cue for serp?
Nope – the verbals will either be the directionals for the line, or a name call, depending on exactly what the context is.
>>In the super advanced game around the clock game you were giving a cue on the threadle, was it “close”? Is that a threadle cue that you use?>>
yes and yes – that is the threadle slice verbal I use.
>>You suggested the word “back” but will that be confusing to her since “back” already means back up? Although I can’t quite envision her coming to a complete stop at a jump and backing up if I say that.>>
She probably won’t be confused but it is always better to keep it different. What about ‘push’ or ‘digdigdig’ or ‘wrap’ or something?
>>I’d like to see a thread in the forum on suggested words or your words for all the different turns. That might help me to use some of yours or give me ideas at least.>>
We can totally do that! I will start it after I watch the videos tonight!
Tracy
Good morning!
The diamond is looking great! It is really hard game (all the wing-tunnel games from now on are really hard) because of all the speed and how quick we handlers need to be :)) You were great!
>>She was wide on some turns because I was so slow in showing her what was coming next.>>
Yes, you can turn sooner on the middle racetrack jump – you had a lot of go go go but didn’t turn so she was like “go where, mom?” You got earlier and earlier each time so she got tighter and tighter 🙂
You also added more distance on the middle wing as well, which was great! You don’t need the arm up to support it, just stay connected like you did.
The blinds are also looking good! Keep trying to get them started sooner: trust her commitment more. As soon as you see her exit the tunnel, start the verbal and start the blind. No worries about the occasional spin, that was probably because your brain finds those easier to do when you are also doing all of the other things (motion, connection, reward mechanics, verbals, lions, tigers, bears, oh my LOL!). She is reading those tight blinds really well!!!
You can add in the combos here: do a racetrack then the tight crosses then a racetrack, as one big course 🙂
Serps –
It cracked me up at :06 when she exits the tunnel and jumped on you: “mom, I nailed it!” LOL!Some sessions just don’t go as planned, and this was one of them – she was definitely feeling the tunnel love! It was hard to ignore it!
I think this game was hard because the tunnel has a lot of value and is a HUGE visual for her (compared to your hand and the toy). Even after she serped, she wanted to go into the tunnel. So don’t beat yourself up – it is not a handler energy issue, it was not a handler error issue, it is just a young dog learning to do something hard in the face of a big huge delicious distraction 🙂
So for the next try at this, make the tunnel less exciting by turning the entry and exit down to the ground, so there is a tunnel there but there is not entry or exit (turn down both ends so she doesn’t try to get into the other end and run into a closed off tunnel).
And you can shake your serp hand or even put the target in it that we used in the strike a pose game. You can even replace it with a barrel so it is serving on a jump and ignoring a barrel, not a tunnel. All of this can help balance the value.
Hooray for grass! Bye bye now!!
The ladder grid is looking good.
For the moving target, you’ll have clearer forward motion if you have the toy in the dog side arm and not across you body.The first reps were teaching her the framework, and she did well, no questions. Her form looked nicely balanced on the front views. On the side view at :38 and after looked good too! Yay!
>>I forgot to let go of the toy when she grabbed it but will try to remember in the future.>>
Yes, let her run through the toy 🙂 She will bring it back (eventually LOL!)
>>We will also put the other dogs in the house next time so that she isn’t distracted by the barking.>>
Definitely!! She might appear distracted, but what we are learning from the neuroscientists is that at this age, a dog’s brain will tend to prioritize social information (what the other dogs are doing) and that takes bandwidth away from what we are trying to teach them. And with the other dogs barking frantically, her brain was definitely processing that. When I had the sound on, my dogs all jumped up and started barking/racing around, looking for who was stressed – and they listen to barking dogs on videos all day LOL!! When I watched with the sound off, my dogs all went back to sleep 🙂
So it gives you insight into how the barking sounds to other dogs, which is why we want our adult dogs to not be nearby when the pups are training (even if they are quiet, BCs are big staring dogs and the pups feel that pressure :))
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I love how you added a LOT of energy and arousal to this session, without having to move much at all 🙂 Perfect! The ultimate goal of this game is that the dogs can process the verbals in higher states of arousal 🙂 So doing it without motion is great! And now… add in ‘neutral’ motion. What I mean by that is when you are doing the tunnel first then either another tunnel or wrap after she exits, you can meet her at the tunnel exit and just move forward towards the wing but don’t handle. Just go forward (walking at first, then jogging then running) and start the verbal as soon as she is out of the tunnel. That is also very challenging because now we add arousal AND motion (and keep going with the high energy verbals, those are GREAT!)
The double wrap reps were probably because she had to process the tunnel cue after all the wrap cues, plus if she has any history of doing double wraps with you standing still there, she might offer it. It was almost like you could hear her saying “oh f*&%ck she said TUNNEL!” hahaha So mix in the tunnel cues sooner so she doesn’t get into a groove of doing the wrap 🙂
She is definitely doing better with the serps! Leave them be for now, don’t obsess 🙂 We come back to them and I am sure when we re-visit them, she will have read the book and watched the videos and will have them down pat LOL!! You can totally move to the proofing game with the serp and tunnel (without movement at first) because that will help solidify the understanding of the serps.
>>Tried to do a few more exercises today, but her brain had melted.>>
One or two high energy, mentally challenging games per day is about right… in these games, she was processing a LOT and running hard. So it makes sense that she was not able to do more. Be sure to mix in a ton of decompression into each session and between sessions. That can look like running around with the toy, sniffing for treats in the grass, sniffy walks, etc. That helps her physiology reset and be ready for more 🙂
Great job on these!
TracyGood morning!
>>Two things: 1. Can you recommend someone online to help me retrain River’s weaves?>>
I will take a look and see who it teaching weaves… most classes are independent study. I hear great things about Ninja Weaves at Clean Run! I will poke around and see who has good classes 🙂
>>2. Is it possible to start to show the ‘final product’ or set up concept before the “how-to” part of the videos? Ex: the serp set-up (wing, jump, reward placement) was so much easier to understand when you explained the full serp set up. >>
Great idea, I can start to add in maps and videos to demo it). The final product is something I don’t like to put first because people then skip ahead to the final product and the dog fails and fails and fails. That is why the final product is not seen in a lot of the demo videos LOL! I can find other ways to add them in without encouraging people people to skip to them, like putting it in the middle somewhere (check out the primacy and recency memory forms to see why people remember the final product and skip to it, rather than the training steps)
>>I can work more effectively at home when I get the idea of how the final behaviour would look, beyond the scope of the exercise.
This is good to know – most of the exercises are worked in sweeping general concepts that then get narrowed in scope as we go along or if we have to problem solve.
>>I am envisioning like, a map example and then the obstacles disappear to leave the actual exercise set up.
I can finagle some ways to show this for sure. It will probably start in a couple of weeks – the 2 games this week are basically the same as the look in the demos 🙂 and I can add in some visuals of what it looks like on course.
>>I love that you have started to change your filming angle within one session so that we can see what the dog sees and what the handler sees. It makes a big difference!!
As the handling gets more complex, you will see more angles starting. Good to know that the visuals really help! And I can certainly add more visuals in terms of where the game is heading and convincing ways to start at the beginning and not skip to the end 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
She did a great job of coming in for the jump on the first rep where you had less turn of shoulder, and had a harder time coming on on the second rep (other side) where you had more turn of shoulder LOL!!
It might have been a question of side preference for her (moving to her left might be harder for her than moving to her right) and also the reward placement – on the first rep, the reward was easier to see when coming in over the jump, and on the 2nd rep it was easy to see going past the jump 🙂
You got it on the 3rd rep by changing your motion. You can also angle the jump a little towards her especially on the harder side, so she can see the bar more clearly and so you can keep moving.
>>I really thought I dropped my shoulder back until I watched the video

Ideally, your shoulders line up with each wing and center of the chest points to center of the bar… all while staying in motion of course LOL!!!! I remind myself to look back at my serp hand, which helps me open up my shoulders.Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The 6 foot distance looks good here too. And the reward target seemed further away so she powered over jump 2 more. Yay! So thinking about next steps… I think the 6 foot distance will end up being her “sweet spot” so let’s stick here at 6 feet. Add in the moving target for a session and see how it goes. I am guessing she will be GREAT! And so if that is great, you can then move to the ladder grid (adds the 3rd jump) starting with the stationary target to show the grid to her and then going to the moving target. When you do add the 3rd jump, show it to her first at 8 inches – the 3rd jump adds a new level of difficulty so when one thing gets harder, we make another thing (jump height) easier to get started.Great job on both of these!
Tracy
