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Good morning!
These reps looked really good! It looks like she is in the sweet spot for spacing right now and for the height of the 2nd jump. I see you did 6 feet in the next video, so we can compare šThe next step here (whichever spacing she looks better in) is adding the moving target. It looks like she was going to a stationary reward target, so she was powering down over jump 2 to be able to stop. She was very organized, so you can now add in the moving target so she can stay powered up over jump 2 and for a few strides after it. If you were using the moving target (it was off screen), then you can lead out further so she has more room after jump 2 (her stay looks great!)
Good morning!
Flyball foundations sure do come in handy for agility jump grids! I am guessing she is bouncing her 7ā flyball jumps at the 10 foot distance?
This session went really well. What was the distance here, so we can keep track and build up? She was really consistently in the middle of jumps 1 and 2, and then consistently a little āshortā on jump 2 landing closer to it and not as much in the middle. This is just info, nothing to change, good to know (experience and structure and age and conditioning of the dog all play a role in where they land in the grid). So leave it here at this distance and show her the game one or two more times. She did a great job of staying organized in her movement even as you ran and dragged the toy (thanks, flyball!). After another session or two, the next level of this will be posted and she will be ready!
The only thing to add right now is more stay reinforcement thrown back to her. She was wanting to anticipate and move a little early (like in rep 2) so more rewards will help her be super solid in the stays.
Great job here!!!!
TracyGood morning! Lots of good work here!
Looking at the crosses at the beginning:
All reps had great reward mechanics!!! Lovely connection!
For the first part, you were doing spins (the FC/BC combo) where you rotated towards her. They were good spins, but ideally they would be the true blinds you started doing at 1:40 š My guess is that as you were emphasizing connection and reward mechanics, your muscle memory took over.You switched to the true blinds at 1:40 – very nice!!!! Great connection and reward mechanics from your and great commitment from Hola! Also really good timing – it is hard to get the timing and you nailed it. Yay!
The giant racetracks looked great – speaking from experience, it is SO HARD to stay connected and get commitment with the youngsters but you nailed it! Yay!!!
You can do the combo of the crosses at the beginning then into the big racetrack then back to the crosses. And for even more excitement, spread it out for more distance challenge š
Strike a pose also looks great! My only suggestion on the serp is to get your right shoulder pointing towards the first wing a little more, if it wonāt be painful to twist a little more.
And on the tunnel cue, be sure to turn your feet and step to the tunnel, otherwise you have a conflicting cue of upper body versus lower body. For example, at 1:16, you had your feet facing the jump and upper body facing the tunnel and when you relaxed your arm too soon, she didnāt take the tunnel (it was a good question from her). Turning to face the tunnel with upper body AND lower body will get even more commitment.
And she was super about coming right in for the serp after the tunnel reps. SUPER!!!
So you can add a little more motion, and also add in the threadle from the advanced level š
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Lots more distractions here, getting to do his Minny Pinny around other people and dogs! Someone there was REALLY LOUD lol and there were a lot of people and dogs and noises.
It was a good insight into the teenage brain: he had to work extra hard to ignore the distractions (steam coming out of his ears!). For the first minute, he was able to execute the MP but was moving more slowly because it was SO HARD! Good boy!!!
Then you saw some interesting behaviors where he was struggling – a big frustration leap at the head of the person nearby at :59, then climbing on you a little bit at 1:19, then hitting the wing and the bars after that, then he did a few more reps pretty well but left at 2:46 and again at 3:01. He slowed way down and finished the session but I have some ideas for you to be able to train in this environment without him presenting these other behaviors.
Using the Minny Pinny, for example:
– stick to only the easy reps when the distraction level is soooo much higher (turning towards you is easy, turning away was so hard!)– use reset reward like a cookie at your side if something is not quite right in the rep.
– bring him into the session with a pattern game like we did in MaxPup 1, so he can assess the environment and offer engagement.
– add in decompression after every couple of reps. This can be running around with the toy (might be hard to do this in a busy training environment) or scattering a fistful of treats on the floor so he can sniff and breath. This decompression is HUGELY important for helping young dogs in challenging environments.
– set a timer for 1 minute then give him a break. He generally works in short bursts (and that is great) and he was great for the first minute hereā¦ then he started to struggle because the dog brain does indeed get tired by the intensity of focus required in this scenario.
Overall he was such a good boy! The Minny Pinny was not hard, the environment was hard, so it allows us to help him get comfortable working in that busy environment.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>hanks much. I didnāt realize until I watched the video of how much correcting I did. BAD JERRI.>>
You’re not bad, you are just programmed to fix (like the rest of us!) We had an interesting discussion about that over the weekend at a webinar, and several years ago I would have urged you to stop and fix. But now we see how punishing and confusing it can be for the dog, and the neuroscientist/veterinarian has enlightened me on al the reasons why the dog’s brain would be confused…. so we don’t fix any more and everything goes better LOL!
>>I am very happy with her sit in a distracting environment. I think that is her first public off leash sit stay!>>
Yeah! She was GREAT!!! And she gave you instant and clear feedback when she was frustrated by barking at people, then ignoring them when you were clear with info. Love it!
>>My trial was cancelled this weekend (not NADAC), so iāll get some training in. We just got 4 inches of SNOW!>>
Bummer about more snow! I am ready for the weather to calm down!
>>PS Iām moving. Where should I go?>>
Ooh! I mean, selfishly, I recommend the Virginia/North Carolina area. There is a TON of great dogs sports and great weather. The best weather (4 seasons without a horrible winter) and lovely mountains and great dog sporting is in the corridor between Charlottesville, VA and Richmond, VA. North Carolina has SO MUCH amazing stuff but it is a little hot & humid, unless you like hot and humid. And the North Carolina dog sport stuff is an easy drive from the C-ville-to-Richmond corridor. I am further west in Virginia (near Roanoke) and the weather is stunning, the area is amazing, but not a lot of dog sporty stuff nearby.
The West Coast is also super nice as you know, and I love a whole lot of other parts of the country too but I personally prefer a climate that is not too hot and not too cold. And the housing costs and cost of living here in central/SW Virginia and in North Carolina is relatively low which is always a bonus!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>The videos that you last responded on re the set point jumps he had eaten dinner the night before and breakfast that morning so yes, food in his belly and a great training session.
Good to know! Keep tracking! I am betting there will be a correlation. So if he has not eatenā¦ donāt try to train anything that requires a lot of energy. Maybe do some simple session for treats to get some calories into him!
>>Also, since I brought this up temps have been much cooler and very rainy. I also thought about temp changes and Iāll have to keep notes on whether he eats or refuses his meals when the temperatures are higher.>>
Also good to know! He is too young to have experienced real heat yet, so there will be some acclimation for sure.
>>He refused his meal last night. The house was full of family and my granddaughters were here who he LOVES to play with. He couldnāt be bothered to eat his dinner. He ate breakfast this morning.>>
He was probably over-stimulated, in terms of his HPA Axis. So his body chemistry was in high arousal and he was not able to go into ārest and digestā mode. The best thing to do is some decompression, like a long sniffy walk (without friends and family haha) and a quiet place to sleep.
>>He is much better now about taking treats when weāre training at home but if we go out anywhere he canāt possibly eat a treat. The resilience games and the CU exercises are very hard to do with him because of that. >>
That is a definite goal, eventually, to get him to be able to eat a very small, SUPER high value treat (just a little so we donāt tip is belly into feel badly!) in new places. Will he tug or chase a toy? All of the resilience and CU games can be done with toys (I did them with toys initially with my whippet mixes because they couldnāt eat either).
Looking at the videos:
>>He doesnāt get the turning away from me. I feel like I have to take a step backwards and solidify the right and left verbals in the easier positions before I attempt these again. Am I correct?>>
Yes, he is great at indepedently doing the Minny Pinny without youā¦ towards you š Turning away is a lot harder as you mentioned but you did 1000% the correct thing by throwing the toy out there and then having a BIG party! He also didnāt really hate being held while you did this, so the bonus is that it is building value for being held š At the end you tried it without the placed toy, but he was not quite ready for that. So with the toy, keep placing it and moving it around the Minny Pinny til it eventually ends up next to you, and in your hand. This will take a couple of sessions, so you can move it to a new spot (between jumps 1 and 2, then between 2 and 3, then after landing of 3, etc, every couple of reps.
Serp proofing is going well! If it seems like it is really challengingā¦ that is because it is really challenging LOL! And yes his attitude was great! The most important rep of the serp was at the end – after 2 tunnel reps, he was able to do the serp. SUPER!!!
>>When Iām moving slowly he takes the tunnel. >>
First video:
You had a bit of movement here and he was great, jumping to his left.2nd video – jumping to his right – totally see what you mean about him having more trouble when you are moving. I know it has bene hard to tell if he is lefty or righty, but I think he is a lefty!
Keep building up the movement (it will of course be easier jumping to his left, so add motion first when he is jumping to his left and your left arm is the serp arm) – bear in mind that the thing he sees the most is your motion/feet, which is the same on the tunnel and serp cues.
So to help the serp become more visible to him, you can dip your serp arm down and shake your hand a bit – that can make the serp cue pop through even more when you are moving. We will eventually ad verbals to it – often it is just a name call – so you can try the release then his name while you are moving.
And it is entirely possible that one direction (jumping to his left) will proceed more quickly with the motion being added (pun intended haha) than the harder side – you might be able to jog through the turns to his left and be almost stationary to his right. And that is normal and also fine š The side preferences even out when they are in late adolescence.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Welcome!!
I love that you have access to a league where you can work little sequences and use cookies š That is GREAT!! And there were a TON of wonderful things happening here and also great info from Stacey Marie š
Her start stay looked great – she didn’t really have a stay a few months ago, but now it looks great! Well done to you for making it a fun thing!
2 things that Stacey told us in this session:
– because she is inexperienced, you need to over-emphasize your connection and eye contact, much more than an experienced dog would need. Look at the difference between your opening the 1st time (connection was more as if she was super experienced, so it was a little soft) and the 2nd time (GREAT connection! You nailed it and so did she š
And also towards the end – fabulous connection on that last sequence and it was absolutely beautiful.
So definitely crank up the connection more, especially in new places (like the upcoming NADAC trial).
The other thing she told us is that stopping to fix errors is stressful (that is what happened just before she took off to bark at people both times she did that, like at 1:16). She also jumps up on you when you stop (a bit of information seeking, a bit of frustration, which she does not do when you keep moving). And when you kept going… she was totally focused and engaged even though the distractions were still here.
An example of the ‘keep going’ thing was on the sequence that started at 1:32. Started off great! She missed a jump at 1:36 – late turn of shoulders caused it? Lots of visual clutter past the jump caused it? Both? Hard to know but I am pretty sure you saw it happen and you kept going as if it did not happen: and the rest of the run was freakin’ brilliant!!!! YES!!!
There are a lot of reasons why the ‘keep going’ motto helps our young dogs, but you can see it in action in this video š
So no matter what happens… keep going as if it was perfection, then you can think on your feet and swing back around to get her back into whatever she missed (and increase your connection or get closer to help her out). That will get you the focus, engagement, commitment we can see from 1:32 to the end. So fun!!!
Great job š Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This is a really hard game and he did really well!!! In fact… he was 100% correct š Good boy! He was doing a fabulous job of reading the info!!!!
The couple of mistakes were handler errors (said with love of course, but slow motion video reveals everything LOL!!!)
The things that went well were because the handling was clear before he (and you) starting moving, whether it was the tunnel or serp or threadle. And most of the things went really well!!!
The things that went wrong were because you both started moving and *then* you tried to show handling… but it was too late.
On the video: the physical serp cue is a little late on reps 1 and 2 (your shoulder was closed forward as you moved to position then as you contiued to move, you opened your shoulder to serp) but on time enough that he got it. The tunnel cue and shoulder position was super clear!
At :11 you wanted serp but he ended up in the tunnel. Video reveals that he was correct: you were in motion, shoulder closed forward, released…. then tried to do the serp arm but it happened so late that he was already past the center of the bar before you opened up your arm. And since there was no verbal… his only option was to choose and obstacle based on the physical cue and he chose correctly (the dogs almost always do!)
I hope you rewarded him heartily and then watched the video to see what happened.
Compare to :15 when your serp cue was soooo much earlier and he was perfect of course š
Same with the threadles – try to more clearly to show position *then* release, rather than release then try to show position.
He threadled at :21 because of foot rotation because the cue started after the release (and yes, you can use a verbal for sure!)He did not threadle at :26 and video shows he was correct again š As he is beginning to move, you are already in motion and past threadle position (in serp position), and the verbal was the last thing that happened here – so as he was making a decision, he had to choose based on the physical cue so he was correct to serp. Maybe eventually he will be able to fix it with the verbal, but for now he won’t have the verbal override conflicting body language.
Compare to :29, where he could see all of the info clearly before he started moving…and he was perfect.:36 – :38 – looked like a tunnel physical cue and then you switched to serp just as e was getting to the first wing, so he adjusted but touched the bar.
:44 and last rep – he got the threadle (clear cues!) Yay!
So to maintain the clarity of the cues, present them in this order:
– assume the physical cue (open shoulder for serp or threadle, closed shoulder for tunnel)
– then start to move while naintaining that cue
– then release with a clear verbal, just before you arrive in position: the serp position is between the uprights and closer to the exit wing, and the threadle position is just before the first wing.What was happening on the reps where he ended up somewhere else was that you were moving then releasing *then* doing the cue… so it was too late for him to read it and change his line.
So definitely no more oops markers allowed – you are telling him he is wrong but actually he is correct and that can be very confusing/stressful when he makes a decision based on the info he sees/hears (video evidence supports the dog LOL!). If you are convinced he was incorrect, toss a treat or toss the toy, then immediately watch the video in slow motion before the next rep. It is much easier to see on video in real time or slow motion than it is to see in the moment.
Great job!
TracyHi!
It seemed like she was expecting left turn on the first rep so had a slightly delayed response to the cue – but she did end up getting the right turn: OH WAIT MOM IS GOING TO THE RIGHT!!! LOL! She has great peripheral vision and is picking up the cues really nicely from way ahead of you. the 2nd rear cross looked great.
You can play with starting a little further from the barrel, so you are a step or 2 closer to the wing – decelerate in your start position as she is wrapping, then set the RC line from slightly ahead to challenge her to start behind you a little and then drive past you.
She only had one question here, when she didn’t go to the barrel at :28 – you stepped backwards and transferred the reward from hand to hand, which drew her attention to you and not to the barrel. She sees everything š So be sure to have support the handling with motion – she doesn’t seem to mind when you transfer the ball from hand to hand (like on the first rep here, when you supported with motion better), but the question happened when you also stepped away from the barrel.
Great job on these! She is definitely ready for the advanced level with the backside wraps!
Tracy
Good morning! Super nice rear cross on this clip!!! Yay! You showed a really clear diagonal and rear cross pressure, so she was able to make the direction change before takeoff. SUPER!! The only thing I don’t think you need is to use your dog-side arm to point forward ahead of you, as that turns your shoulders to the right turn side of the jump (while your pressure line and motion are saying left turn). So you can try it with more acceleration and the dog-side arm pointing more to her nose as she passes you.
Great job!
TracyGood morning! It is lovely that the weather gives us a break sometimes!! It looked so windy there!
She did really well with the Minny Pinny – you were very neutral and she was really strong about producing the correct left or right. Yay!!!
>.Should I be using a toy for this exercise? Iāve been using food. >>
Yes, you can use a toy and I think it might be a little better at this point for 3 reasons:
– the toy is more stimulating so she will bounce more and trot less
– the toy is more stimulating so ‘listening’ to the verbals will be a little harder, but she is ready for that
– the toy takes longer to use than food, which means fewer reps – and now that there is jumping involved, we definitely want fewer reps. There were approx 24 reps here which means approx 72 jumping efforts. Even though they are relatively simple jumping efforts, it is still jumping and the dogs get fatigued after a while and start to change their movement patterns. Using food and not moving much, we humans don’t feel that and keep doing a lot of reps. So the toy will slow down the # of reps and result in fewer reps. You can also set a timer for 2 minutes to help limit the # of jumping efforts.Now that jumping is involved, I count the # of reps on everyone’s sessions so we don’t end up over-jumping the dogs, even at this early stage š This is especially important because a lot of the games involve bars and jumping now, so it canreally add up.
The ladder is also going really well! The first several reps were mainly introducing the concept that there would now be 3 jumps (no problem, she says!)
When she went through the full grid, her jumping on bars 1 and 2 looked great, same as with the set point. The jumping on bar 3 was a bit forward (her weight in her front, rear end not powering through) but that is because she is moving to the stationary target and getting ready to stop – so no worries about that, it is not a jumping question, it is a reinforcement question.
Since she had zero issues with the 3rd jump added, and no questions with the 56″ distance… the next step is to go to the moving target. The moving target will get the great form on jump 3.
On the RC video:
My only real suggestion is to stay outside the edge of the wing of the jump on the GO reps, so you can keep running and not stop or decelerate until the toy lands. This will help you when we add the wraps and decels to this.Rear crosses – these went well, it was very clear to me as a spectator when you were getting ready to cue the RCs.
>>Should I move it closer so I can be closer to apply more pressure?
Nope, I thought you were good! You can get on the RC pressure line maybe one step sooner on the left turns, I think those were the harder side for her. Stay nice and tight to the wing and get on the line right away, and she will get it (the last rep was the best example of that, it looked really good!). The previous left turn reps had you stepping away from the start wing a little, which made it hard to immediately show the pressure.
>>Should I try this with placing a toy out on the turn that she can go to rather than rely on my bad throws?
2 thoughts – your throws were fine LOL! and I don’t think she needs the placed toy. She did really well without it. Yes, there were a couple of reps that were delayed responses because she was processing, and she had a question on the first 2 RC reps to her left – but overall she was reading the info really well so you can keep getting on that diagonal nice and early!
>>So Iām not sure how well this went but it felt a little better than last time. On some of the reps I donāt think I was headed towards the center of the bar. Am I supposed to be using the Left and Right verbals here? I wasnāt sure and I think I only did it once.>>
I think it went really well! You were heading to the center of the bar earlier on some reps (those were the better ones) than on the other reps, but you were totally doing it. And you can use the left/right here if you want, she is reading it well and it is helping her commit to the jump. I didn’t ask people to do it because there are a lot of other handler mechanics to concentrate on š
And you can add on the advanced level now, with the backside wraps. She is ready for that!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyYay for green grass!!!!!! Mud is better than snow š
The rear crosses looked super strong here! And you were also working to make the verbals sound different, which will be very effective!
My only suggestion is to keep your feet facing the center of the bar for longer, so he doesn’t have to run in front of you and so your feet don’t look like the backside cue.
At :02, :13, and :55, you were a little early turning your feet to cut behind him. He wasn’t fully past you yet, so he kind of had to jump in front of you.
On the other RC reps, you kept your feet facing the center of the bar til he was fully past you, and those looked great!That foot position will make a big difference when you add the backside pushes of the advanced level (which he is totally ready for :))
And all of the Go reps looked great!
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
>>On the RCS, I just didnāt do the left side. I will do that in our next session.
Perfect!!!
>>>Remind me though, where is the correct place to place a toy for this exercise?>>
I place it on an L-shaped line on the exit, just past the wing, so it is a reasonably tight turn.
>>>The Diamond. I did notice that I should have turned sooner at the middle wing. Being late seemed to cause him to turn wide out of that turn. Also, I see what you are saying about my decel at :56.
I think you were do that as a way of supporting your boy… and your boy was like I GOT THIS! So fun!!!
>>PS. Sir Robert is the most powerful dog Iāve ever ran. That Diamond drill felt pretty amazing.>>
He looks amazing and the best is yet to come! The handling games are super fun when the pieces come together ā¤ļø
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>the ladder. Feels like he is landing too close to bar 1 and as a result, taking off too far away from bar 2.
Is he not launching with his rear legs and more pulling himself with his front legs when he starts?>>I am guessing this was his first session of it? I think he did really well and there are no concerns. Remember that the visual of this grid with the 3rd jump added (plus moving target, plus being an adolescent) makes it a lot harder. And he is still in his ābaby bodyā so he doesnāt have his adult power yet.
With that in mindā¦ he is presenting correct form. He is pushing from the rear especially out of the sit. He is *almost* center in the gaps, very close to center. But being centered is not a requirement – good form is, and he looked good. The only thing I might do differently is to have him start 2 or 3 inches closer to jump 1.
So in a couple of days, show this to him again and see what he does. He might be a little more centered – but he doesnāt have to be. He is definitely NOT launching in a bad way and is doing really well!
And remember that because he is literally just a year old (ok, a year and 4 days or something LOL!) that his muscle development is not in place like it will be when he is 2, or when he is 3. So for this grid to look this good already while he is still wearing his baby body? SUPER!!!! Compare it to the gangly spider legs of my dogs in the demo videos LOL! And watch it in slow motion and you will see how balanced and strong he looks.
>>The rear cross is just going to take sow more time for meā¦
The rear crosses to the right here looked fabulous!!! Because he is already so speedy, you can probably leave the start wing a step sooner so you are not as far behind. But I thought your timing was really strong and he turned the correct direction each time here. If there were bloopers that did not make the final edit here š it might be that you were late getting on the line in those reps, or it might be that he just has trouble turning to his left. So for the left turns, you can help both of you out by putting the reward down on the turn line before you start the rep (I did that for Contraband to jump start the skill to his weaker side, because he just couldnāt do it without the visual target of the toy).
The rep of the Diamond looked HOT! Wheeeee!!! Like real agility, so fun – his commitment looked great! The bind cross on the tight line was great – super timing of trusting him and starting the BC when he was maybe one stride past the exit of the tunnel.
And great connection on the exit of the BC!
Lovely patience on the wrap at :54 to set it and let him commit.
At :56 you decelerating to set up a bit of a send, and I donāt think he needs it. You can stay connected like you were and run run run š Because his commitment looks great, you can turn away from the middle wing and start heading back to the tunnel a step or two sooner (his line mirrors your shoulder turn, so he will tighten up his line when you turn sooner).Great job here!!!
TracyHello and welcome!!! I am glad your snow melted, finally!!
She is tiny! And cute and fast! So fun!!!
Really nice session here – she is totally understanding the framework of the set point so now we can make it more challenging š
The stay is looking good too!
>>I did a couple of stay proofs by throwing the toy back and saying ācatchā. (I know the idea is to do it before the dog moves, which I think she did on my first attempt. But I think I was able to do it the second time before she moved :)).>>
I think she was just tensing up to move forward but then she caught onto the catch game and was perfect after that š
My guess is that we will end up moving her distance to 4.5 feet and then to 5 feet, as she āpowers upā in her jumping – she looked comfy here but feel free to try this at 4.5 feet as we add the next steps š
So now that this went so well – we add the moving target. The goal of the moving target to replace the stationary target is we get more power and organization from the dogsā¦ while also adding handler motion and a little distraction š The stationary target is good for teaching the framework but the dogs also power down in the set point because they are preparing to stop at the toy.
The first stage of the moving target is in the pre-games, where you are showing her the concept on the flat then over 1 low jump. I am confident she will be fine with that, so after a short session of that, you can add it to the set point (that is in week 2, here:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/concept-transfer-set-point-plus-moving-target/)When you add the moving target, keep the bar on jump 2 really low (8 inches) to start – it is a whole new level of organization for the pups š so we donāt want to add the challenge of height yet š
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
