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Hi!
I think these are Maisy’s favorite games so far!
She had no trouble at all with the 1-5 line as you moved further and further away.When you added the FC at :20, you can rotate and leave sooner: you started it on time (as she landed from 4) but then you stayed there too long – you were still at the jump as she was taking off at :21. So try to cue the tight turn and then head to 6.You can keep an arm pointing to the landing spot and maintain connection behind you to support commitment, but that will help get the tight turn and keep the bar up
You were earlier at :30 and the other FCs, but you can trust her more and leave even sooner, so she is passing you to 5 as you are already heading to 6.
The blind-to-throwback option also looked great at :40 and 1:05! Trust her more on that and be moving towards the bind the whole time. You left nice and early after the throwbacks!
Just be sure to keep cuing the line to 8, you pulled up short a bit on the last one and she skipped 8 at :34, :43 an 1:05. But when you cued it with the verbal and a bit of physical cue? She was perfect. Yay!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>I went ahead and included the walk-throughs. I wanted to improve my connection as you mentioned in the last sessions.
I thought your connection was super strong here! Nice! And your rehearsals looked good – the work session with her showed up a couple of training questions (trained skills more than handling skills) and one handling thing to add to help out.
The threadle on 3 at high speed was the hard part – I think with you running, she needed a turn cue before she entered the #2 tunnel. It can be a name call to get her turning before she exits the tunnel, setting up the threadle more easily.
In the handling, pulling further away is a good idea for the threadle but it is limiting because you don’t want to pull toooooo far away -so the turn cue before the tunnel plus a little pulling away can help. She also did better without a lot of motion, so part of the training (and planning for course runs) is to reduce motion in those threadle sections so she can read the cues (upper body and verbal) that override motion.
Her only other question was weave understanding, popping out or needing you to go all the way to the end. that is something to train on a bit where you start her and let her finish without you, then throw the reward : )
>> but I also knew she would struggle with the RC at the weave entrance. We still struggle with a RC on a jump.
Those are 2 slightly separate skills – for the RC on the weaves, I would go back to how you originally taught them, open them up a bit (like slightly open channels) and work the rear crosses with a reward at the end. If she has questions, you can start by placing the reward at the end, then work up to throwing the reward.
Rear crosses on jumps are more about handler line – setting the pressure diagonally so you are running more towards the center of the RC jump.
>> Since I have access to many of your classes (including the puppy series), I wasn’t sure if there was something I could back up to as I feel like there is a training piece missing on our RCs? I set up an exercise from a previous class with two jumps in a line and then left or right jump perpendicular as RC options where you reward in the correct direction regardless. That is still tough for her. Should I back up even further to earlier foundation work? Thanks for any reference or suggestion>>>
You can work that 2 jump game but lay a line on the ground so you are properly running the diagonal – if she is struggling, you are probably late 🙂 She will need to see the RC pressure for jump 2 starting before takeoff for jump 1 (remember the WOO!) so it is possible that she has already made a takeoff decision when you begin the RC cues.
We have more RC work coming up here next week, that should help too!
Nice job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
This is going really well! She transferred the concepts really quickly!
On the 2 jump setup where the jumps were in that flat line, you had a clear upper body rotation (serp arm back, eyes on her) to create the serp line – keep that going as well when you add the tunnel to the sequence even when the jumps are angled open by still having your serp arm all the way out and more eye contact as you move forward.
You did this t 1:33 and 2:37 when you released her to serp that first jump, looked great! One some of the reps where she was coming out of the tunnel to the serp jump, your serp arm was closed more forward and it was harder for her to read the line (like at 1:45 and 1:57)
This might have been part of her question at 2:50 and 3:38 when she missed the jump. Good job to angle it a bit more so she could find the line more easily – you can angle it even more because that side is harder for her. And you can add even more connection there too, to help – it is possible that she saw your shoulders too far forward and didn’t know where to be. When you did add the connection back more, she got it very nicely 🙂
She thought the discrimination game was crazy at first LOL!! You can even isolate just the tunnel sends with you sitting – she was really wanting you to run but we want her to go to the tunnel using just the verbal. The getting on the cot made a lot more sense to her, she is probably used to seeing it in this context (you sitting and not running :)) You can also shorten the tunnel so it is easier for her when you are not moving. She was getting the idea by the end! Yay!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
It was great seeing you in class last night (or yesterday morning for you LOL!)
This session looked great – I think putting the toy away TOTALLY helped commitment to the middle wing! The only rep where she had a question on that middle wing (:18) was also the rep with the toy in the hand 🙂 All of the other reps – no toy in hand, no questions about commitment 🙂
Also great job keeping your wings in – that also made a big difference in the quickness of the blinds. You were a tiny bit late on the very first on (I think having her on your right is less comfy for you than having her on your left) but then the rest were great – strong timing and excellent quick connection so she knew exactly where to be – SUPER! Also, you maintained that strong connection on the exits of the middle wing: for example, when you exited the spin at :42 you made a big connection back to her and she accelerated ot the tunnel. And at 1:05 on the exit of the FC on the middle wing, you had low arms and clear connection, so she accelerated to the tunnel there too. YAY!
Definitely keep up this wings-in, great connection, it looks great! Well done :)
Tracy
Good morning!
Very fun to be able to take this to a park!! And to work outdoors with temperatures that are NOT hotter than the surface of the sun. I am feeling jealous 🙂 This session went REALLY well!!!The Go line looked great for both of you! For the Go line, throw sooner or leave the toy placed out ahead so he continues his extension jumping all the way through to jump 3.
Gorgeous wrap on the 2nd rep for Karena and at :38 for Mike, and also the reps after that – you both nailed the deceleration into it. His independent commitment there looked great!
For the rear crosses – you can start that convergence onto the line even sooner – rather than running parallel to 1 & 2 then push into the rear cross line, you can be heading to it as soon as he lands from 1 so he sees it happening before he takes off for 2! That will accomplish 2 things – you will show the RC line sooner and also, you won’t be as far ahead for the rear cross (like at :13). As counterintuitive as it sounds, you want to be a bit further behind on the rear crosses so he passes you sooner – which puts you ahead on the next line. So when running the rear crosses, you will be very close to the wings of the jumps leading up to the RC line, then put the pressure on nice and early.
You went back to the rears at the end of the video and you were both much closer to the line there starting even before jump 2 – and he was much stronger on the rear crosses! Super! That was more of what I meant about getting into the space a bit more so the rear cross info starts earlier.
That will also help with the backside pushes – he should be seeing the physical cue before takeoff for 2 here which means you need to be further ahead and closer to the wings so as he is lifting, you are already pushing across the bar. At :19 you had run parallel to the original go line so when the was taking off for 2, he thought you wanted straight. Ideally in that moment you would already be further across and looking at his eyes. You were definitely earlier at :24 but you can be even earlier.
Part of the timing on the RCs and the backsides is knowing just how early the dogs need the info – turns out they basically need it before they take off for 2 on this 3 jump line. Eek! I used to think the dogs would be fine if we started showing the info as they landed from 2… nope! That was late. I am going to go grab a link about timing from the CAMP class so you can see what I mean about how much earlier we are giving the info (physical and verbal). Ronan definitely has the commitment now so we can start to play with timing – and that will also help as the bars start to get higher (because he will be taking fewer strides and will need info even sooner :))
Great job! I will be right back with the timing info.
Tracy
Good morning!
>> Hmm. I’m still confused. If the DOR and I’m turning left for a front cross you said have my weight on the outside leg and then said left leg. If she’s on my right I’d consider my outside leg the right leg and normally it would be back towards her. The leg closer to the next jump is my left leg. >>
You might be thinking of which leg is close to her after the FC? For me, the outside leg is the leg on the other side of the dog. So for a dog-on-right lead out, the right arm/leg is the dog side leg when I release, and the left arm/leg is the outside leg when I release. When standing still in a front cross position, I will put the weight on the outside leg (left leg here) so that when I start the cross, I drop the right arm and leg back towards the dog (and towards jump 3). On a moving FC, you would plant the outside leg (left leg) for the FC to be able to step back on the right leg for the FC. A common footwork error on FCs is that people step forward with the dog-side leg and then try to push off that leg into the FC… but that widens the turn and delays the info. Deceleration into the FC helps get rid of that, and also replacing most FCs with BCs nowadays has completed solved the footwork puzzle 🙂 Things more way too quickly to have to worry about technical footwork other than “run, change direction, look at the dog, yell the thing” which is why blinds are very effective in some many scenarios. The FCs are reserved for tighter lines where the FC turns your line & feet to the next line sooner than a BC does, and also for places where we are sending into a turn from a harder angle (which *does* involve the dog-side leg stepping to takeoff a bit).
On the zigzag grid:
>> Did I at least set her up right? She just found a straight line and bounced.>>
Yes, that is correct, and ideally she keeps bouncing while the grid gets harder and harder in front of her. She was fine with the grid here, easy peasy, so on the next visit to it you can flatten the angles of the jumps by a couple of inches, moving the outer wings away from each other (eventually it becomes flat like a serpentine but for now, we want it pretty open).
>> Toy is supposed to be placed and I’m walking and throwing>>
Yes, place the toy on all of these so she does not look at you at all – if she is looking at you on the release, wait til she looks forward then release (looking up at you skews the jumping position a bit) and then with the toy on the ground, she is highly likely to look forward when working the jumps. You can walk, that is fine, but be past the 2nd jump before you release for now.
NIce work! Let me know how this grid goes because as it gets harder, she will need to coordinate a lot of side-to-side motion!
Tracy
Hi! I agree, he likes the long fuzzy toys that he can really chomp on the end – plus you can really keep that type of toy moving and he likes chasing it a bit too 🙂
And if you step on his foot, start throwing the toy around and make the moment really happy – do you tend to step on them in handling or during reinforcement? Ideally, we figure out where it is happening so we can eliminate it.
Tracy
Hi!
>> By suitable I mean none although try to get out with others as often as possible.
Yes, definitely keep getting out with others as that can make it into a class-like setting for her 🙂
Yes, the slope and having it be a bit slippery does make it harder! Looking at the videos: On your walk throughs, I think the biggest thing to practice is more of the connections – I think that will make the biggest difference for her especially on the sending. Your handling choices were strong – so after you figure out the handling (it didn’t take you long at all to do that) you can move to doing the handling but looking at her particularly in sections where you tend to look forward. For example – your connection on the distance sections and is great! And really focus on connection to her eyes when you are sending her into a distance section or on the exit of a cross… and do this while you keep moving faster and faster and faster 🙂 You will spend most of your time on this – and as you start moving faster, your verbals will start getting into the normal range (loud LOL!) and that will get them rehearsed too.
On the first run – definitely keep moving down the line to 5 as you send her to 4 – she read the distance work really well! So you don’t need to help her by waiting, you can get right next to the 5 backside – that will set you up for the big connection on the send to 6 – at :13 you lost the connection and then pointed forward, so she ended up behind you in the tunnel. Note the difference at :36 when you had awesome connection and she nailed it! So work that connection in the walk through, so you can get it in the very first run with her.
On the 2nd run – the extra rehearsal in the walk through of you moving will also keep you moving on the first run. You had some moments of standing still on the first run, and she tends to stay on the big lines – so staying in motion will really really help her find the line you are setting. You are getting the sequence correctly in the 2nd or 3rd go-round, so the added practice of the walk through at speed and with connection will really help get it in the first rep.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> Can you tell I’m having a little valley in my confidence in agility? LOL!
You might just be still recovering from camp! You had a great camp, so we now you have the skills and teamwork!
>> figured out a possible solution for the send behind thing. I’ve tried a couple of times to have a wing and then a cone behind my back with my legs right up against it. I’m using my off side hand to send around. VERY slow going. I’ve tried to show a ‘middle’ and then a ‘whoopsie’ (my word for around my back) so he can see the differences.
Very smart! That’s a clever solution to show him the difference!!! Love it!!!
>>So I thought I’d move on to the discrimination. Ummmm, I don’t think my dog knows what a jump or a tunnel command is. sigh… What is the step before sending to the obstacles by name? I couldn’t do it sitting – they thought I was crazy, so I stood.
Turns out, he is in good company, a lot of dogs are saying “what the heck” and also want the handlers to move. So, we can split it more: start by standing still and just have a tunnel OR a jump. That will begin to develop the concept of “take an obstacle by name even if I am not running to it”. Then after standing, do it sitting (with a frosty beverage, it is hot out there! LOL!). Before adding the second obstacle, get the behavior pretty strong with you sitting or standing, not moving, and he is in between your feet (in his line up position) so there is no “help” based on which side he is on 🙂
Then go back to standing and have both obstacles there (but not too close together, maybe 5 or 6 feet apart). And with him between you feet, start the verbals game. And eventually work it back to sitting.
This will NOT take one or two sessions, it is probably something to try a couple of times a week for a couple of weeks, for just a few minutes. It is REALLY hard!
>>Is it easier for the dog if I am closer to the obstacles or further away so they have a little time to think and see both things instead of just heading for the one right in front of them?
Yes, I think it is a little easier if they obstacles are further away, provided they know to move to them without you moving. But also, be sure to not let him move on the first verbal: hold his collar, say the verbal 4 or 5 times, then let him move. That will really help the processing!
>>BTW, I went to a trial this weekend and came away wondering if it’s me or the courses the judge set up, but we couldn’t get any of them done.
Probably not you LOL! I love UKI, but sometimes the course designs just don’t, um, make any sense. Some judges put ALL the challenges in one course, at every level, and that takes away flow, makes them impossible, and is soul-crushing. Ewwww! I have seen this happen at the B/N level (if I am entered and the course is gross, I just run NFC because I don’t want my dogs exposed to grossness) and also at the S/C level – where the best/fastest dogs and handlers can’t get around the courses and the Q rate is exactly zero. Poo.
>>There were a huge number of Beg/Nov people at the trial – like 50 in the class. The two I spoke with crated by me were so disheartened that one said she wasn’t going to run her dog in agility anymore at all, then other said she wasn’t going to do UKI again (first UKI for both of them). I told them these were not typical of all UKI judges, but I’m going to see what you think about that if you don’t mind.>>
That is very sad! UKI has specific rules about how B/N courses should be designed so they run like true B/N courses (I am a newly-minted UKI judge). And we have course reviewers who, in their own judging, break those rules. Ick. Yes, send me the maps – and if it was just you being a slacker, I will let you know LOL!!! (You being a slacker? Unlikely. LOL!)
Tracy
Good morning!
>> For jump 12 “So wrapping the other side of the backside would work a lot better there because she can jump 11 in extension, do a wrap on 12, then be back in extension to the tunnel. ” To make sure I understand this, the dog would be on my right for jump 10 and 11, then I would push her to the backside of the right wing of 12 and she would wrap the wing and I could pick her up on either my right or left to send her into the tunnel. That does sound easier.>>
Yes, that is correct. In this case, the wrap would be faster & easier. In most cases, it is the slice that is faster and easier but only if it is relatively straightforward to get the dog to it. If it requires a lot of turns to get to the slice, the wrap might be faster (especially with small dogs).
>> wanted to share this even if it wasn’t perfect because I did use my verbals more consistently and loudly and I also chose to layer the tunnel. Keltie seemed to like both of these and responded by running pretty fast. I was surprised and happy.
The imperfect walk through/run comparisons are the useful ones, in terms of planning future walk throughs! I am glad you posted it! And yes – it was very fun to see Keltie love that layering section!
A couple of ideas on the walk through – add in looking down and making connection to where the dogs would be. For example, the FC 3-4 is a great choice. As you finish it, remember to remain connected to her – she is behind you at that point – rather than look forward. Same with the send to the 6-7 layer and the tunnel exit. Then, when you have the connections, add the verbals. Then -got connections and verbals? Go faster and faster 🙂 The walk through ended here while you were still walking, so the run with her was your first time putting together your side of things: speed, connection, handling, etc (and verbals, but you ended up being pretty quiet).
Her first run was really strong, so you can see how well the rehearsal and planning will work! You were a little tentative in spots because it was the first time with a lot of motion and you didn’t get a lot of walk through as you mentioned, which also contributed to defaulting to the ending line of sequence 1.
>> >>On the second run she ran into the tunnel after 3. My guess is I was late on the front cross and she was definitely moving faster. I got the turn on the second try but it was pretty wide so I am sure I could be doing something different there.>>
On the 2nd run, you were thinking more about verbals and didn’t get the connection 3-4, so she took the tunnel, good girl! And, with the added speed in that spot, you were backing up towards the tunnel which also indicates the tunnel (backwards motion is still motion LOL!). The rest of it was looking stronger (and louder too :))
So for the next walk through (sequence 3) – after you set the sequence up, give yourself exactly 1 minute to formulate a plan (set a timer). It is also fine to have a plan based on what you see on paper, before the walk through, like we often do at trials. Then, after 1 minute, stat to walk your plan with connection, and verbals – do that for another minute or two. Then… add speed! Try to do all the things you have planned by running. Spend the next 3 or 4 minutes doing that… then add her in and try the sequence.
I think it will work well, we can already see how well she is doing! Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>> was thinking about the EO runs that I watched and just how hard it was to get through those courses without Eing, much less getting a score! And then just how perfect Angie’s EO Finals Jumpers run really was… Unbelievable how “perfect” that run was!
Totally agree – the courses were full of skills (I was surprised about how tight the small and medium courses were; I thought that had changed but clearly not). And Angie’s gorgeous gold medal run was due to all of the skills training she has done for Sundae and all of the skills training she has done for herself 🙂 It was truly amazing!
Looking at your walk versus run – the 5 minute timer is helping because you had to think about the decisions quickly and then rehearse them quickly, which is basically what happens at a trial. On your next walk through – set 2 timers. The first one can go off at 2.5 minutes, at which point you stick with all handling choices and move to rehearsing the speed, connection, timing, verbals, etc for the next 2.5 minutes. That is actually the most critical element: running it as much as possible as if you were running the dog. By the end of the walk through here, you were just getting into the nitty gritty of that and it would be helpful to have done it a few more times- the spin 7-8 was still looking uncomfortable, for example, and slower-paced, so it would be good to speed that section of the walk through up to get it into your comfort zone.
The run went really well! All good choices, connections, verbals. The spin section was a still a little uncomfortable and delayed, and he had a question about where to be when yo were finishing it. The 2nd one went even better – a full second faster on a short sequence! The 2 spots where I think it went faster were the 4-5-6 line where you accelerated more, and the spin at 7 to the backside at 8 – you were more comfortable and moving faster on both, so you knocked a full second off your time. WOWZA! That right there should be a reason to do more real-life running in the walk throughs, because that 15.9 second run can be a walk through run and the 14.9 second run can be your trial run 🙂 Yes, it is hard to do the speed stuff at trials with all the people around, but doing it in practice will get the rhythm of his speed going, as well as help rehearse the connections and verbals (which can be done at trials, even with a ton of people around).
The flip is looking good! Once he is on the correct side of the jump, he seems to really understand how to finish the job, and that is great! Getting him to the correct side of the jump was harder: the successes were coming when you were past the wing or parallel to the wing. If you were on the landing side of the wing, he was not sure about where to be and often ended up on the front side of the jump. That is pretty normal as part of the learning curve, so you can warm up the next session with you moving and when you are past the wing, release to do the flip (your position and hands all looked good!). Then slowly increase the challenge by releasing when you are parallel to the wing. Then slowly increase the challenge to release before you get past or parallel to the wing – that might take multiple sessions, because almost all of the physical cues say ‘front side’ except the hands and voice which say ‘Threadle wrap’ – so challenging!
And yes, the tunnel distraction definitely has his eyeballs looking at it, but that is a great (and common!) distraction nowadays.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Well he didn’t really want to eat the treat (cheese) he just wanted to leave and go get his ball. Stinker.
That moment was actually hilarious hahaha it was as if the treats were an annoyance LOL!!!
>> Even though he didn’t have that much speed because the wing was set fairly close, this was the first time he was a little naughty about self releasing or not holding his four-on criteria. I did add a little more handler movement up to and past the end of the board. I did notice he was stopping closer to the end this session.>>
It was overall a good session – he is still sorting out the releases and weight shift. No worries! I think his main question is where to put his front feet. Our answer is… right at the very end of the board. You were using a strip at the end, and I think he was stopping short of the strip. Yo can have him put his front feet right on it, and that would be perfect – run to the end and foot target the strip. You can work it on the flat at first by elevating it so he steps up onto it (make it a couple of inches tall, maybe put the strip on a little piece of wood?). That way he can run to it then step up onto it, and stay there til released. Then you can attach it to the end of the teeter board, and he runs to the end and puts his front feet onto it. My Elektra did that in training, I used an old KN94 mask as her foot target LOL! I will go hunt up some video.
And once he knows where specifically to put his feet, I think the rest will be easy peasy! I am going to go find some video…
TracyHi!
I would put a weight on each end to keep the whiplash of the board to a minimum. And you can add a little movement at the bottom.>>When you couldn’t hear me, I was focusing on body language, not verbals lol very complicated 🤦♀️ I was very happy with her speed 😀
That is what I thought LOL!! And that is great! We an add the verbals back when the physical cues are very comfy.
T
Hi!
>>So, what is your footwork for a lead out front cross?
On a simple line like this where jump 2 is on their line? No precision footwork needed 🙂 Hooray! You can just release, say the word, turn and go (it is even easier with a blind cross there). The step to takeoff on something as simple as this line is redundant and makes us late (and facing the wrong way) for the FC.
>> I’ve done some OMD stuff which does have you step to take off. What exactly should I try?
The OMD stuff has some concepts that are a little outdated, because back in their prime, it was all about the handler giving the physical cues for all the things. But the sport has evolved a lot and we realize that we can easily train the dogs to find the line and respond to the verbal, so we don’t need nearly as many physical cues as OMD would recommend (thankfully, imo :))
So the step to takeoff on a front cross is really only for if we are coming in on a really severe angle where we have to send the dog past us to get it. No step to takeoff needed on any relatively simple line (same with backsides).
>> If it’s the same set up. I’d lead out to jump three with dog on right. Is my right foot back, forward etc? Which way am I facing if I am not facing her to step to take off?>>
If you are leading out to the FC, your body position to start would match your body position if you were moving into the BC: you are facing forward past 2 (not facing her) – maybe with a tiny angle back to her and arm down, to establish connection and see what she is doing – but no rotation towards her and no step to takeoff. Your feet are somewhat forward but you will find that it is easier to to have your weight on your outside leg (left leg) so you can just step back into the FC. To get the feel of it, walk into the FC and release as soon as you arrive in position, without stopping or rotating or adding steps.
Most of the lead out FCs have been replaced by either running into the blind or leading out on the serp line (lead out push), because they get better turns and are far easier to handle 🙂 You will see a lead out FC sometimes on a really hard angle, but the lead out push/serps have replaced a lot of those too nowadays.
The laps and tandems on the video look good! You are not bending over too much – the lap turns require a lot of bending over, and a good tandem has a little bending over too. Both cues have a lot of hand movement as part of them, so we need to bend in a little so she can see your hands.
Lap turns are a slow motion move with your eyes following your hand: when you did that, she was perfect every time. On the 2 little errors at the beginning, you were too quick to move forward again and your eyes didn’t follow your hand so she didn’t get it.
The tandem turns looked really good too! Great job using your hand cues and your eyes following your hands to help her read the line. She as a bit wide on the first part because you had a lot of acceleration and you were a little later on the cue. On the other side, (and when you went back to the first side at the end) you decelerated a bit and you were a little sooner: lovely!! She was nice and tight. How tight you need the tandems to be will depend entirely on the course, so you can add decel or acceleration based on what line she needs. The lap turns are always tight, so always do them as a slow motion move with the eyes following the hand.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
