[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Yes, the goal with the tunnel rear was to try to stay behind the tunnel plane – it made a lot of dogs think! Clearly we all need to do more rears on tunnels!

How did River’s appointment go?

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I’m trying to run like you say, but I don’t always execute it well. Less footwork and more run works for me!

I think you’re doing a great job! It is not easy sorting out mechanics with young dogs and things are coming together really well. We keep noodling around to see what fits her best!

>>Where is the best place to leadout for the push? That worked well and I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen that move.

The lead out push basically replaces a lot of places we would have done a front cross.
The best place is on the spot where you want her to land and turn, to really show her the line. As long as you move on time, you won’t be there when she needs the spot LOL!

The zig zag looked great! The toy play looked great! My only suggestion is to move the toy another 3 or 4 feet away from the 2nd jump, so she can power out even more.
Next session: angle the jumps a little flatter but about 6 inches. 🙂

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
I am glad your mom is out of the hospital! That is a relief for sure. And congrats on your success at the trial! Sounds Iike an amazing weekend, wow!!!!!

The walks versus runs on the skills challenges looked good! Definitely keep practicing the walk throughs, that will continue to make a big difference in the runs!

Seq 1 – Comparing the walk through to the runs: you can walk with more connection and more speed and louder verbals 🙂 You were definitely showing the lines with your motion, but your arm was up so your invisible dog would not see your eyes 🙂 and you were very quiet LOL! So, act exactly as if you are running the dog with a low arm, watching him behind you (on the opening, for example, and on the exit of the FC at 5) – and remember to use your loud verbals 🙂

The runs went well You had more time than you planned for on the tunnel exit at 8-9 so ended up doing the FC, which is fine – and good to know that you have plenty of time on the big sends and layering to get where you need to be. You got your connections and verbals here, but I will bug you to keep working them in the walk throughs too because that is where most errors on course are for all of us: broken connections and lack of verbals 🙂
He ran it all really well – the only little bloopers were a bar down at 2 (he just slipped from what I could see) and on the Last rep you got behind on the 5 backside so he pulled the bar there.

Seq 2: The walk through happened after the first 2 runs, maybe just video editing out of order? You went in more on the 6-7 layer line in the walk through ( then he joined you LOL! ) so maybe the walk through was after the runs here to fix the questions he had?

The overall shape of the handling was great! A couple of ideas for you – you can be sooner with the FC 3-4, trusting his commitment more to be further ahead and start the cross sooner. The FCs were late here, so he was wide – the timing matched the timing on the walk through, which means you can definitely practice seeing the invisible dog land from 2, cue 3 then start the FC.
Even with the FCs a little late, you were rehearsing great connection in the walk through especially at 1:30 and it worked beautifully – he turned well and never looked at the off course tunnel. Yay!

Sending into the layering got tricky – more connection after 5 as you send will help him, and more patience to set him on the line before you move away. You stopped a bit one the early runs so he had questions – the send 2nd rep had more connection but then you stepped back so he pulled in . After the walk through, you went in further at 1:35 and it worked great, it matched the walk through there. The layering looked great!

Seq 3 – the 3rd run started off well but then the layering pulled him off 6 when you hung back by the tunnel exit (I think he was correct there based on your position to not take 6) You got up the line closer to 6 and it worked a lot better on the 2nd run . So definitely plan your lines of motion to support his line more especially on the layering, because decel or stepping back tends to pull him off.
I loved the lap turn/threadle wrap at 8, that worked brilliantly! !

The live class sequences looked really strong too – the weaves there were an added challenge especially coming back down the line towards the tunnel. He found position 1 with the invisible dog walk to be really easy. Position 2 was harder (the placed toy really helped!) and then position 3 was easy with the placed toy as well. It gives him the support to really commit independently, which made the whole line much easier.

Be sure you keep moving down the line to the tunnel so he doesn’t start asking questions about curling in or taking the weaves 🙂 The extra motion will help support the line, and also connecting to him more will help. It sounds counterintuitive, but looking at him more (or looking at his tail when he is ahead haha) will turn your shoulders to the line and he will see that peripherally. If you point forward more, it turns your shoulders away from the line and he might curl in or ask questions. You can see a bit of that at 2:46 when you turned away a little too soon and used a little too much arm pointing, so he almost came off the line.

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I am glad you was working hard not the walk throughs, they are really the key to producing those great first runs!

>> The only question I have is regarding your last sentence: “and the spots where you were not supporting the verbals as well were all in the walk through, versus what you had to do to cue the line in the run.” So, I know that is one of my weaknesses, but how do I improve it? Is it more visualization after the walk, exaggerating my handling on the walk? Before you answer take a look at the below>>

I will answer first before watching the videos, then answer again afterwards. Since it is happening during the walk and you are not rehearsing it then forgetting it, I don’t think it is a visualization question after the walk through. I think it is exaggerating the handling during the walk through, bigger movements and really trying to ‘see’ the invisible dog. I will look below and see if I am correct or not then answer again LOL!

>> 3) On the side-by-side run thru vs. run, I am not supporting sharp or hard turns with my handling in the walk thru enough to succeed in the run with the dog. So it may be an example of your sentence above, right?>>

Yes, exactly! If he needs a stronger cue, you need to deliver it in the walk through so it is at your fingertips in the run too.

About the struggling in small spaces – it might have been the timing of getting him sent into the layering? You definitely have to wait a bit to set up the send after the jump before it. I thought you did well with your running line on the rest!

On the videos:

Seq 1:
The walk through can have a more intense connection to the invisible dog, especially on sends such as the exit of the backside into the layering. At :07 you disconnected after the backside and looked forward to send really fast and leave. That is almost exactly what happened at :25, when he didn’t go to the layer (you were more connected than on the walk through, then disconnected and sent so he thought you wanted the tunnel). You were great at :35 – that is what the walk through should look like (connected and patient on the send til he is on the line).
The other trouble spot was the exit o the 8 tunnel – the verbal was late at :39 (his head was just about in the tunnel) and I can’t compare it to the verbal timing in the walk through… because I couldn’t hear the verbals in the walk through LOL! Much better the 2nd time, you were a stride sooner on the verbal and had he physical cue sooner too. The last run looked good too, but he pretty much knew it by then – no need to do those final runs on these sequences, you can move to the next sequence to start fresh.

Seq 2:
On the walk through – on this one too, you had a good shape to the handling but you needed more connection strongly to the invisible dog 🙂 Specifically, you can ramp up the connection on the sends (exit of 1, 5-6) and exit of crosses (3-4). Without the connection practiced there, you either have to wait longer to get the turn you want (which puts you behind where you planned to be) or he doesn’t get the send. Both of these happened on the first run.

On the ending line – on the walk through, I thought you were sending him on the same big line you did on the first sequence (figured you forgot the course :)) Then at 2:01 you were trying to get the correct line but the handling was late and he didn’t read it. So yes, I think this is an example of what you were saying above: the physical cues can be stronger in the walk through. You got the line there on the last run but the bar was down, because the cue as late (you can start that cue as he exits the tunnel, or you can use a spin or break arm there instead of rotating and backing up).

Seq 3 – let’s look at this in reverse! Look at the last run, in terms of connection, speed, and intensity of handling cues. The side-by-side really shows this – the last run is as lot more pro-active and clear in the handling cues. You can work backwards like that – take a simple sequence, run him correctly, then walk it just like you ran it to get the feel of it without him… the walk it again. So we can take a reverse approach to getting the walk throughs.

You can use this sequence since you already ran it: without walking it again, run it intensely like you did on the final run here. Then – walk it just like you ran it. That might produce the muscle memory and feeling of how you want the walk throughs to be, in terms of the verbals being loud, fast running, big connections and strong handling cues.

Great job on these! Let me know what you think about my reverse order idea of run then walk then run for now!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

This is looking really great – he is doing what ideally we want the dogs to do: coming to the correct side and finishing the wrap without you having to use more hand or shoulder motion, or footwork. PERFECT!! I am still convincing my dogs of that LOL!! He did have the random error, might have been a subtle difference in the timing of the movement and the cue, hard to tell, but it was only that one random error so we will let it go (I have random errors a lot more than my dogs do LOL!!)

Since this is going so well, you can add in the wing wrap before it to have more speed and motion coming into it. You will see this skill begin to appear in the sequences and courses in coming weeks 🙂

Great job!!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I am glad you played along with the class! Fun!

Walk through was strong in terms of the handling being clear! What yo can add to it is a lot more connection to really see the invisible dog and where he would be (especially 4-5-6 l;one and the exit of the 8 backside to the end). Then… do it all faster 🙂 He will be running hard so your speed will need to increase too 🙂 And also… verbals 🙂 You were super quiet on the walk t though and nice and loud on the run – so be sure to rehearse your loud verbals too!

O the run – Great job!!!! You had a feel for the run and you were connected, so he ran it really well 🙂

The opening went nicely! And you did have to run faster 🙂

From 5-6, you added more exaggerated collection handling then you did on the walk through (it was there on the walk through but a much smaller arm motion) and it put you a little further behind than you had planned for the 7-8 section. So definitely rehearse the bigger movements in the walk through too, you want it to be pretty identical to the run so you have a realistic feel for where you will end up relative to him.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I think the walk through preps are really showing good results!!! It is great to have another set up eyes on you for the walk through and plus it allows you to identify areas to work before running (like the backside on the 1st sequence or the past turn on the 2nd sequence). It sounds like Kim was giving you connection advice and that was perfect – the difference between the first walk through and the last walk through was tremendous in terms of connection!

Seq 2 w/ Buccleigh:
This went well! Comparing the walk through to the run, a couple of things to remember for the next one:

The behind the back start looked really good! Bear in mind that he will not be behind you for that long so plan for him being ahead in the walk through. You were looking behind you in the walk through and the reality was that he was ahead of you almost immediately there. That changes the pace and timing of the opening, so definitely something to plan for when doing your next sequences/courses.

The backside at 5 – You had good position on the walk though but lost the position at 1:33 when you stepped to your right and that opened up the front of the. On the bar second rep you rotated and pulled him off. I think the difference was that you were perhaps trying to help more than he needed and part of the walk through can be the patience of getting to position and letting him pass you 🙂 You Got it the 3rd time after working it but then lost connection after it. After getting the connection, the rest ran well and the last full run looked lovely!

Seq 3 w/ Keltie: She did really well too!

I don’t see the fast walk through here, that must be where you ran out of time. If you are working w/ Kim and stop the walk through to work a specific skill, yo can also stop the walk through timer so you can still get the fast walk throughs in (they are important to practice).

Overall, she ran it really well! She did had a little question about the layering on the first run, and I think it was because you did the blind and got a bit past the tunnel when you sent her to the layering… so then you had to back up to layer – that was the moment she hesitated. A blind without going past the tunnel would work better, or a rear cross at 3 so that you can be in motion the whole time. Also, when you are further ahead from the layering, be sure to keep your arm down & back to her (more connection) so she can see where your shoulders are. When you were running with her and not layering, your arms were down and connection was very clear, so she was able to be super speedy!

Nice work getting the backside on the 7-8-9 section! You had rehearsed it and it was easy to produce when you ran her. Yay!

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

She was really driving here! And the good news is that you had too much Go happening, which pushed her past some of the lines (good girl!)

On the invisible dog walk warm up and sequence 1 – the line was in a great spot, so try to run parallel to your line and not over it – running past it towards 3 and 4 is what pushed her past 4 at :21 and :35. Ideally, as she exits the tunnel, she is finding 3 and 4 as you are running parallel to the line on the ground and perpendicular to the tunnel.

The same “too much go” was happening on the line going back down to the tunnel after 5 at :51 and 1:07 and 1:21. You caught it and used a Go to get her initially on the line, then added at turn cue at 1:34 and it worked like charm! Yay! And with that in mind, you nailed the last sequence when you put it all together. Yay! So now you can move your invisible dog walk increasingly further and further away, as long as you run parallel to your line and not over it.

The only other detail to note on this session is she was set up too close to the jump at :58, she was not able to get full hind end under her to take off and landed on the jump. She was set up further back there on the next rep, and had no trouble at all 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi all! We have had working spot become available, if anyone wants to register for a last minute 2-night spot! Respond here or to the email I sent 🙂
Thanks!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Do you mean when you are working on the Go lines at the tunnel exits? Throw the toy VERY early so it lands before he exits the tunnel, and race him to it 🙂

t

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi again!
This was a good session for sorting out her timing and where you could lead out to. Her stay looked great, which is super helpful!

In the first part of the video, you were a little too close to jump 2: for the FCs and BCs, you were getting between the uprights of 2 when you can be moving closer to 3 to show the line better. On the FC, you can lead out and stand there but on the BC, you want to run into it, on a lateral line, so she commits to 2 while you head to 3.

You had a Goldilocks moment on the blinds in the middle of the video, and it was great to sort out the timing:
too early at :40, too late at :44 – just right at :50! On all of those, move the whole time, so you are releasing in motion – that motion will commit to 2 so you will find the BC easier to handle.

On the FCs in the later part of the session, you led out to 3 and that was really strong position. At :55 and 1:03, I don’t think you need that big step to 2 because 2 is on her line, so you can face your next direction more and release her to see if she will find the line 1-2 independently.

At the end you did a couple of the lead out push openings – you are a little too early with closing your shoulder towards 3 at 1:11 but you were great about keeping it open to her at 1:20 and she read it perfectly on that last rep. Yay!

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
All 3 teeter games look good! Little details to add to each:

On the bang game:

>I’m supposed to be sideways not facing the teeter.

It was hard to tell where your starting position was because the edits were so quick. but I think you were in a good position (you were generally facing forward, to the wing, as if that was the next obstacle after hte teeter). She seemed happy with the game! The next step is to begin by holding her harness or collar, gently pulling back to get her more excited… then say your target verbal and let go, so she leaps into position with more giddy up 🙂 That will hallenge her balance a bit more, which is important as she gets faster and faster on the teeter.

On the mountain climber and angled entry – both looked good! Yes, she was a little more tentative as you added more tip, so stay at this level. The other thing to add is having the reward placed on the target at the top, so she can rac to it and not think about the tip or where you are 🙂 It looks like you were coming back to give it to her, but we want it on the target (a smear of cheese or something) for her to grab when she arrives. This is different than the bang game, where you do not put it on the target because we are waiting for her to put all 4 feet on the board, then you can deliver the reward.

Nice work! Onwards to sequences!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
This is looking really strong! He saw lots of early (timely) rotations and was almost perfect on his commitments, and he easily transitioned to the race tracks. Yeah! He had one question, at :28 – just a blooper. You didn’t do anything weird or different, and he was able to get that turn later in the video.

So now, the mission, if you choose to accept it: run faster on all of it, really push him 🙂 You can use the spacing here, it is perfect! How fast can you go and how early can you rotate and run away, while maintaining the connection and verbals and timing of the decel into the rotations, before sending him behind you to the wraps? And for the race tracks, you can use your arms in sprinter position and just run run run (while connecting and yelling verbals too, of course). This makes it harder for you to maintain all the handling precision (simulates what will happen on course) so if he has questions, you can dial it back. This is a great way to get him (and you haha) processing at higher speed, before we add bars in. That way he can sort out all of the running and coordination without having to jump – which makes the jumping easier to coordinate when we add it back in.

Great job! Let me know how it goes when you run faster 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>irst, serpentine training is going well since our last check-in on that. No video to review there, but we are making good progress.

Terrific! Thanks for the update!

>.First, I realized that “kennel” and “tunnel” verbals probably sound too much he same for this exercise.

Yes – kennel and tunnel sound too much the same, I was typng it as you said it LOL!

>>He kind of knows “crate” verbal a little so I tried it out with not the best results.

When you changed it to crate, it was definitely different in sound but was that a word he has heard before? But he definitely knew it was NOT the tunnel and it was much better!

Keep repeating the verbal, you were saying crate once then getting quiet, so he had questions. But this is a good start! And definitely mix in some tunnel cues too.

One other thing –
The 2 obstacles were too close together, as were the tunnel and the jump later in the video. Have them 3 feet apart and see how it goes.

About that jump tunnel discrimination – the good news is that the Masters dogs in the CAMP class are having the same struggles LOL! I think the next step will be the same as theirs: just have the jump there, no tunnel, and have him go to the jump without the motion, juts on the verbal. It is possible that “jump” doesn’t mean much yet, so we can build it up.

>>Some of the things not on video may having you spitting out your coffee in wonderment of just what the heck we were doing!!🤣
>>

That was the saddest “go pro, stop recording :(” I have ever heard LOL!!!!!

Sometimes a good laugh is best when things go wrong LOL! It was not that bad of a session LOL!! You had good progress with the crate versus tunnel, and we have a plan for the tunnel versus jump – and he ate lots of cookies 🙂 Yay! Let me know what you think! The next session will goa lot more smoothly, I promise 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> I need to find more time to do the ESCs before trying to run the courses!!!

Yes, that is ideal but if you can’t – you can do the walk through on the big courses and video it – the walk through will provide a TON of info! And if you run it and there are errors to fix – walk it again before you run it again 🙂

>> hoping to get out for the standard course Friday morning.>>

If you do those before the ESCs of the week… do the walk throughs fully and videotape 🙂

Course 1: This ran well overall, for both girls! Yay!

Great job with the first half of it with Artie! The opening looked really strong til :23 when you got quiet at the tunnel 10 so she followed you line and didn’t see 11. That is definitely something to make sure you practice before you run her: tunnel cues so she knows how to exit the tunnel. That 10-11 line is an ‘out’ which means she needs to move away from you, so lots of cues needed there.

She had some trouble with the 15-16 line – getting there as early as possibly with the blind helped, and the layering you did with Maewyn looked great too! Getting there early and rotating sooner helped – try not to move backwards as you are cuing it for now, the backwards motion was reading as forward motion to her, and overriding the rotation and threadle cues. Another approach to it is to, as she exits the 14 tunnel, cue a turn (a wrap) on the 15 jump so she collects, then cue the in in threadle after you see the collection on the takeoff side of 15.

Course 2:
For Artie – that first jump is a big trend nowadays, so we can totally help her sort it out! The first thing to do is to move her position over so she is on a slice line (set up near the wing closer to the 13/15 jump), facing the center of the bar and the landing spot and you are one step ahead of her and facing the wing you want her to wrap around. Then, while she is in the stay, point your right arm and leg to the exit wing, make connection and release her without the big step. That can help show her what you want on 1. With both of you facing the center of the bar, it does look like a backside push and that is something that goes wrong a lot on these openings.

For Artie, a stronger left verbal plus a little more handling needed at 4-5 – the spin slows you down a lot and takes you off the line, so try a brake arm (opposite arm, used low as a WHOA! moment) as that can get the turn and keep you moving up the line nicely.

Her weaves looked great here! Yay! A name call needed at 3:25 after 7, it looks like the teeter was visibly on her line there so she had a slight detour. You got the threadle wrap nicely at 9, so remember to connect to her (arm back, eyes on her eyes) at 3:34 to show 10 smoothly.

Speaking of connection… Maewyn’s questions at 5 were all about connection (or lack of it :))

Was she having any trouble taking the off course 9 jump? It not, you didn’t need as much handling as you were doing, as it was pulling her off. Mainly, she needed your arm back and eyes on her eyes. Most of the moments where she ran past it (4:10, 4:43, 4:50, 5:05, 5:30 and 6:05) were just that your arm was pointing ahead of her, which turns your shoulders past the jump so she went with the line you were showing.

At 4:26 you added more handling (more name call and a thigh tap) and that pulled her off more.

>>So there are many attempts on those two sections

Here, and on jump 1 with Artie: embrace the 2 failure rule more. Fail once? Try again to fix it. Fail twice? Break it down, help the dog (usually by adding more connection, or isolating the skill or placing a toy on the line, or all of the above :)), or if you don’t know why it is going wrong: watch the video. If you still don’t know? Move on to something else and post the video. We don’t want to go past 2 or 3 errors, because that gets frustrating for everyone and then you both overheat.

The only other little detail for Mae is to push in to the backside of 15 at 5:48 sooner, so she can find that line more easily.

Nice work on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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