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Good morning! This went really well, he was perfect about either following your line of motion and ignoring the jump when cued, or going to the jump when you did the ‘get out’ cues. Nice!!!!
On the first couple of ‘get out’ reps, you were stopping and sending. Be sure to keep moving so your feet are forward and your upper body does the big get out cues – this is more of what you did on the last rep and it looked great!
Your connection on the regular non-get out reps looked strong, he had no questions there either.
>I feel like if I want to add some more handler motion, I will need to spread things out more due to his size – what do you think?>
Yes but also no 🤣😂. Keeping it close like this will challenge your timing – how early can you cue the get out, even before he exits the wing wrap? And when you add the advanced level, that will be a good timing challenge too! And keeping it close is part of the proofing – can he resist the value of the nearby jump when you don’t cue it.
But yes, you can also add different challenges but moving the wing further from the jump – either laterally away so there is more room between the jump and the wing, or further up the line (towards the camera in this case) so there is more space between the wing exit and finding the jump when cued. That makes the get out a little harder and that is a fun challenge too!
Great job :)
TracyWOW is right! This looked pretty perfect, I didn’t see a human or canine foot out of place. You handled assertively and with a ton of connection, and you also seemed to really trust that he’d commit to the lines and do his ‘job’ – which he totally did. SO AWESOME!!!! I am guessing it was a Q, I didn’t see any faults? Congrats on fabulous runs!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
He was such a good boy here!!! I love how he is now able to enter all of these different environments and play agility with focus and drive. YAY!
The weave entry was fantastic especially because you were already turning to the next line!
Both of the blooper moments were just him accurately reading the handling:
>I was trying to turn him to the right after jump 3 but he went left so I adjusted.>
It was a great adjustment! You had a little too much acceleration heading into that jump so he carried out long. Then if you watch your feet… you were backing up which he could see peripherally, and that is why he was heading where he was. Nice job getting back on track!
> He took an off course tunnel after the 1st teeter due to my not telling him what was next. >
Actually, you accidentally told him it was the tunnel 🙂 When he was taking off for the jump before the tunnel at :25, you were accelerated and facing straight to it. So… off he went. Good boy!
>My original intention was to RC the jump and tell him to turn left. In the moment I started to tell him to do a tight right turn. 🤦🏻♀️ He saw the tunnel & said I’ll do that cuz she doesn’t know what she’s doing!>
He was a good boy! I think he was legit seeing the physical cues to the tunnel.
The rest looks great!
Tracy
Hi!
>but those might be the times to stop and look at the video like you suggested.>
Yes, any time you have a question about what is happening, watching the video will really help!
>For the past few days I’ve been working a lot on mixing things up with the Wind in Your Hair setup. My goal for each session has been to do something different each time: front cross, go, rear cross, backside wrap, tandem turns. I’ve also been switching sides every 2 reps. I think it’s helping a lot and Ellie and Mason both like it. >
That is awesome! Dogs do like variety and happy surprises 🙂
>The challenge for me will be to keep that mindset when we are learning a new skill. >
Most of the new games have balance reps embedded in them, so it should be straightforward to maintain the mindset: new skill rep or two, balance rep or two, watch the video, then repeat 🙂
>That’s when I tend to start drilling because I want to get the new skill trained in as few sessions as possible so I have time to get to the other games for the week.>
Something that is important to remember is that you might not actually see the learning happen during the actual training session. Sometimes the session is definitely ‘meh’ but latent learning works its magic… then after a night or two of sleeping on it, the dogs totally understand. So just try to have high rates of reinforcement and short, fun sessions, and et the neuroscience handle the rest 🙂
>It’s something you can’t get in an in-person group class because there isn’t time and the trainers never see me practicing at home.>
It is definitely something that online classes make easier: we can repeat the video, slow the video down, etc and discuss at length! Group classes have different benefits like in the moment feedback, but not as much obsessing and discussing LOL
>1) When will MaxPup 3 next be offered as a class with video feedback or is it self-study?>
It will be a live class with feedback – starting mid-June (date TBD). We will finish the new content here, have a couple of catch up weeks, then a break, then onward to MaxPup 3. That also gives me time to film new sequences for it and replace some of the older stuff 🙂
>2) Is the weaves class always self-study? If not, when is the next session with video feedback?>
It currently will be independent study, but I am playing with the idea of have a feedback add-on option to anyone who is also in the MaxPup track. Doing it as a full blown class will be hard during the summer, with MaxPup 3 and CAMP running simultaneously.
>3) When can I start raising Ellie’s jump height in our in-person class? I’ve had the jumps at 12″ for 4-5 months. Ellie is around 20″ tall or maybe a little over, but she has a small frame and a less than perfect structure with a rounded back. >
You can try some 14” jumps on easy lines and see how it goes. Then if that is looking good for a couple of classes, try 14” on harder lines/turns too. And then if that looks good for a few classes, you can move to 16” on easy lines and see how she feels about it, followed by 16” on the harder lines a few classes after that.
>My guess is she will be more comfortable jumping 16″ than 20″, but we’ll have to see. She’ll be 18 months old in a couple weeks. >
Is is small and you have structural concerns, 16” will be perfect! And it is a highly competitive class, so you won’t be missing out on anything fun 🙂
>Do you have any suggestions for a strategy/timeline for raising the bars? >
Besides the suggestions above, two other thoughts:
– I keep the bars low on any new learning
– do you have a conditioning plan for her, or a local sports vet? When my dogs get to be in the 18 month range, they all get an assessment from the local sports vet to get conditioning ideas and see if the vet feels they are ready for full height work or not. (ok, my local sports vet is in North Carolina, pretty far away from me but totally worth it)>We will probably still be learning new handling for many months to come in our in-person class too though, so I’m not sure when to add height. >
I have found that in agility, we are learning new handling for about a decade, until the dog retires LOL
>but I’m guessing it’s also probably not great to stay at 12″ for a long time.>
It is fine to stay low for a while and build things up – jump education, handling, and conditioning is more important than jump height right now.
Tracy
Good morning!
He did really well here with finding the jump as you started the RC cues!!!! You were super strong with moving forward to the jump and that really helped his commitment. The toy was dangling in front of his nose on the first rep so he grabbed it (oopsie, he probably thought it was for him there LOL!) but he did well on the other reps.On the reps where he landed straight and turned the correct way after landing, the RC info was just a little late (happening as he was taking off, so he couldn’t adjust and turn the new direction til after he landed). At 1:10 he turned the new direction, partly because the info was sooner and partly because you got the toy on the line sooner too. Super!!!
For the next steps on the RC, you can place the toy on the line you want him to take, to help him learn to read RC ‘pressure’. That would work best if you could put wings on the jump, so the toy can be tucked in on the landing side behind the wing, so it is visible as he is jumping but it will be less tempting to run past the jump entirely a he is coming down the line.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We did so many reps over a few days that this is where I started to question whether she was really following my hand or whether she was on autopilot. Even on super slow-motion I still can’t really tell.>
The answer to the question of “is she on autopilot” is to do fewer reps 🙂 and also to watch t he video after every couple of reps. The video will let you know if she is following the handling or not. So far, she is always following it. We don’t want her to learn the sequence or what the setup is, we want her to follow cues, so do 10 reps total then post the video. Otherwise, it is possible she has learned the sequence and is just doing what she thinks the next thing is. And bear it mind that it is boring for dogs to do a ton of reps of the same setup, so their minds start to wander and you may not get accurate reflections of the handling.
Lap turns are looking great here, I don’t think she was on autopilot because was she was responding to how fast or slow you moved.
Remember that these are collected turns, so move your arm and leg slowly. You were moving them pretty quickly so she was going wider on the first few reps. When you slowed down a bit like at :50 and :59, she turned super tight! Yay!
Looking at the tandem turns:
>that I could only find 4 ok-ish reps for this video. >
The non-ok reps are more informative, so definitely post those along with the better ones! And watching the non-ok reps will tell you why she is doing what she is doing.
>At the time, I had the feeling that Ellie was going to wrap the wing no matter what I did. It seemed like she was running past my hand and doing her own thing.>
She was paying great attention here, actually! When you were late with the turn away cue at the wing, and moving forward fast (rather than decelerating), she was wider like at :02. The 2nd rep was better in terms of you being earlier and showing decel. She was totally paying attention when your tandem turn hands were too early at :16 and she didn’t take the wing! Timng was better on the last rep but you were pretty accelerated, so he went wider.
She really is not an autopilot dog in general and really reflects what she is seeing in the handling! So if you are getting wider turns or something, watch the video and see if you are late or too accelerated (decel is a key to any tight turn).
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! It looks like she is really fun to run on these sequences. So fast! And she also can turn really well!
Looking at the blinds:
The key that you worked out was to keep moving the whole time. At the beginning, you were stopping a bit to cue the wing then driving forward into the blind. That causes a reverse transition (slow then fast) which cued extension so she was wider into the turn.As you kept moving more and more, the commitment to the wing and you timing of the blind got better and better, and that allowed you to get the turns looking really good!
>I tried to be closer to the wing where I was doing the blind so my position would help commit her to it and my motion away would be more obvious and help her turn and I think the turns got better after that in both directions.>
Exactly! Motion and position cue the wing, so you don’t need to step to it or use an arm cue.
>Something I always seem to have an issue with with young dogs, never knowing if they are going to hold commitment so I can blind early enough.>
That is definitely the hardest part of young dogs!! They are still learning so things can be unpredictable.
As you handle, use big connection and a line of motion indicating what you want (like you did with the blinds). Think of it as use the cues then assume commitment rather than wait to see commitment or do big steps/sends, because that either makes us late turns our shoulders away from the line and pulls them off the line.
You were basically assuming commitment at 1:02 and 1:13 by cueing the wing as she exited the tunnel and then doing the blind. On those 2 reps, the blind was finishing a she got to the wing which was great! You did the same at 1:52 and that was a lovely rep too. There were other lovely reps but those 3 are my favorites 🙂
When you added that into the bigger sequences, the run at 2:12 – 2:19 was particularly nice, a real glimpse into the future of how fast and fun she will be on course!!!!
>I really struggled at the end with just the race track part with getting her to actually commit to the things.>
The race tracks are actually a lot harder than they look – so much more distance and the dogs are young enough that they can’t really help us out LOL!!
> I left in a bit in the second session of me practicing the sequences, just to prove I did it, though I have no idea what I was doing with my arm on one of them (adjusting my shirt?)>
The walk throughs looked good! I think that arm moment was just a bit of centrifugal force grabbing your arm and flinging it upwards or something LOL!!! No worries at all 🙂
> Don’t know if she was just hot and tired or if it was a connection error, but I felt like I had to babysit her the whole way around and escort her from wing to wing. >
It was connection. When you were running with low arms and moving along the line with big connection? She was perfection. For example, from 2:36 – 2:39 the handling was all connection and no arms pointing to the wings, and she had no questions.
When she did have questions and went past wings like at 2:40, 2:52, 3:02 – that was when you were pointing at the wing with your arms. The arm coming up turns your shoulders away fro the line to the wing, so she turned with the shoulder turn and didn’t take the wing. You can reward after she gets back on the line or into the tunnel, she was being a good girl.
The last rep had more connection and motion along the line (even with your arm trying to come up and point) so she got it a lot better. So for the race tracks, try to keep your arms low and have big connection – even as you are further away. Use the big connection especially on the exit of each wing, as that will keep your shoulders and line of motion pointing to the next wing. You will be able to add more and more distance by doing that too.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
He did well here, and definitely is doing much better with ignoring people in the ring. YAY!! And the tire was not an issue in flow here, so it was probably just weird (in his perspective :)) to have it in as t he first obstacle with you turning.2 ideas for you:
– There was a lot of stopping to fix things such as handling bloopers or weaves, but the rewards only came at the end (or after the weaves). So be sure to balance a lot and have a ton of rewards appear (like a thrown lotus ball) when things are going well. That will help him find the line even if the connection is not perfect – that is where he often comes off a line because the info if not as clear.– You can also line him up without a treat in your hand to help prep him for what will happen on the start line at a trial. The treat can be in your pocket, and you can of course reward the sit or stay – but having an empty hand to line him up will mimic what he will see at a trial so it is good practice.
One other thing I notice is that he paces (front and hind leg moving together on the same side rather than in opposition) as you are walking back to the course at the end of the 2nd video (at 1:34). I don’t recall ever seeing him pace, so keep an eye on it and see if his back is tight or anything. Pacing in dogs can be in indicator of tightness somewhere. We want him loose and feeling good 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>Sass got chased and is now quite hypervigilant in the ring, even small trials like ours with bunting around the rings. I don’t think it is the reinforcement issue because she learnt that as a baby. And no toys, only food for her. Anyway, I’ll keep working on the pattern games etc>
Oh no poor Sassy!!!!!!! I agree that it is probably not a reinforcement issue and more of a hypervigilence issue. Poor pup! Have you seen the Super Bowls and Power Bowls pattern games? Those are the absolute best for helping the dogs get past the anxiety of hypervigilence.
>I am not sure Maisy is that interested in the toy reward – agility, running fast and jumping is her most valuable thing and I feel the weaves cause an unnecessary delay, lol. At home I usually throw the toy when she completes the weaves but I can leave it indoors. As she trains at the trial grounds I thought there was a fighting chance she would do the weaves there like she usually does in training…>
I think getting the toy involved as a fun reward will really help in this case. If the main rewards at the moment are tunnels and jumps 🙂 then she can skip the weaves pretty easily and grab the reward (tunnel for example). But you can build up the love of a favorite toy or two, and bring that into the ring. It doesn’t have to be a tug toy, it can be a ball or whatever she really loves (even if she doesn’t love it as much as running courses or tunneling :))
Looking at the send and serp video:
>So hard for the little dogs to stay out so I narrowed the gap before widening it again. My speed away from the wing also seemed more likely to pull her through.>
So true! It is very easy for the tiny dogs to slip through the gap. You did a really well supporting her line to help her see the bar rather than come through the gap. At the end you were starting to add speed back, and she still did great. Yay!
For the next session, add more speed 🙂 But to help her still find the jump, angle the jump a bit towards her line so she sees the bar pretty clearly after exiting the wing. That will help her take it as you run. Then as she gets happy with finding the jump with a lot of handler speed, you can angle it back to the position you had it here. It will probably only take 1 or 2 sessions.
And you can approach adding distance between the wing and jump the same way: add more distance and angle the jump towards the wing so she sees the bar even with the bigger distance.
Another consideration is that due to her size, the jump on this line might appear to be a backside to her (because she sees both sides as she exits the wing). So you can start using a backside verbal even though it would not be a backside for a bigger dog like Maisy.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
I looked like he had zero questions about layering to find the jump! Your foundation work with the dead toy really helped!
>he has no idea what they are as yet, or any interest in interacting with them.>
Perfect! He probably thought they were a fence LOL!!! Plus with weaves he can see you line of motion very clearly which of course helps support the layering. The tunnel blocks your line of motion a tiny bit, but I think he is going to be fine with it. And it allows you to ad balance reps where you do cue the tunnel by doing a cross on the wing or pulling him in and giving the tunnel verbal cue.
As you add the tunnel, you can also use a jump verbal instead of a go verbal – getting obstacle name in place can really help with the crazy discriminations we are seeing lately, like a jump between 2 tunnels and we need to layer the closer tunnel and get the jump (but not the 2nd tunnel).
>I think it might have been easier to rotate the wing and just have a 90 degree turn to the jump, but he was a good boy and I liked the way he was seeking the jump out. >
I think the setup you used was great, and you can also play with different angles for the start wing to show him some of the different contexts he might see layering sends in.
>I had my husband throw the toy in so I didn’t hang it up on the poles with my crappy throw and cause any issues.>
This worked really well, both in terms of timing and placement of the toy.
>At the end I added a tunnel after the jump as it was already set up there and then let him so a straight line for decompression.>
It looks like he thought that was great fun! And he stayed on the line beautifully. And it is a very common layering scenario for the dog to end up layering to a tunnel, so it was a great concept to show him. Super!!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning! Another super session here!! It looks like he is so much fun to run!
>For such a big dog, he’s giving me a pretty tight RC!>
Yes, he is really super about being able to extend when cued (the GO reps looked great) and then turn as tight as cued too!
When you did the turns towards you to get the wing (and not a pure ‘go’ rep0 at :11 and :48, he does need a bit of a turn cue and not a Go cue. It can be a tiny bit of decel and shoulder turn, and his name or maybe a sprinkler if it fits into the line a sprinkler cue would create.
>I overestimated on that first RC rep and had to move them in even more. >
Yes – on the first side with the RCs, you were actually a little ahead so the line you ran for the RCs had a bit more decel and was a sharper angle, creating a tighter turn. He did get the wing but you had to push back out to it a little bit.
Compare to the other side, where you set the RC lines up a little differently:
The RCs at :55 and 1:03 were perfect in terms of getting in a little closer to the previous obstacle (end of the tunnel) so you can accelerate up the line in the RC – he got the RC turn and was able to find the wing very easily. These RCs to the wings do require a bit of extension for him to find the wing, and your acceleration up the RC line worked perfectly there. RCs so involve some finesse in setting up the line you want, and you nailed it here on those reps.
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The get out session went really well here!
>I think I was having trouble because I kept forgetting to throw the toy until after Ellie had landed. >
Things were happening very quickly which made timing harder in the smaller space. But we like speed 🙂 so you can spread things out a little more now, to give yourself one more stride for the timing of the toy throw as well as the crosses after the jump. Now that she is getting the concept, it is not as important to throw the toy super early.
>although I think I surprised her with the crosses at the end. >
Yes, but that was just a timing issue because she was moving so fast! The crosses work best when you start them as soon as she looks at the bar, which you were basically doing… but she was flying so by the time she saw them you ended up being a little late. No problem, adding a little more distance between the wing and jump will help with that. The commitment was what we wanted here and that is what we got. Yay!
>Using just the dog-side arm and waving to the jump seems like it would be a whole lot easier for the human.
Yes, totally easier for the human! But….
>Do the dogs read the opposite arm a lot better than the dog-side arm? >
Yes, they read the cue so much better with the opposite arm 🙂 You can see it here: your go straight reps had your shoulders going straight forward on the line, she knew exactly where to be. The get out with the opposite arm completely changed the line of your shoulders, it looked completely different, so she was able to change her line to move away and find the jump.
>If so, I’ll work on my twisting, but only if you think Ellie will really appreciate it. >
Ellie says ‘yes please and thank you’ 🙂 It gets easier and feels less twisty as she learns it more and you get more comfy with it.
I think the zig zags also went great! She I holding her stay brilliantly, and then changing lines when cued super nicely too.
>I noticed that she was turning in the gap between the bar and the next wing instead of hopping directly over the bars. I figured I was probably late (wild guess, lol), so I went down to 2 wings and then back up to 3.>
It is always a good when problem solving to assume we are either late or disconnected LOL!! Yes, you got the cues in sooner so she started going over the bars more.
The other thing I think was happening was that she was just being efficient – and the most efficient line was closer to the wing where there was no bar. Clever!
I don’t think she was avoiding the bars. You can change the set up to emphasize the bars more by having wing 2 touch the bar that comes off wing 1, and wing 3 touch the bar of wing 2. Basically, shorten the distance so there are no gaps. That will tell us if she was avoiding the bars (she would go around them at that point) but I think she will do really well with it.
Great job here! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
He was definitely trying hard to sort the RCs out but they are hard! Part of what was happening seemed to be that he wants to maintain a certain working distance from you (6 feet or more) so it makes it hard for you to get close to show the RC line. And the other part seemed that while you were moving up the line for the RCs, your feet were facing straight but the actual motion was to your left, pushing in towards the other side of the jump rather than forward to the center of the jump (let me know if that makes sense of if I need more coffee – it is subtle LOL!)When you ran parallel to his line, he took the jump really well! And when you turned your shoulders to the line to the jump (:22) he also took the jump. Yay!
So 2 ideas for you:
– jog up the line towards the center of the bar, directly forward, as if you are going to jump the bar (and since the bar is low, you ight end up going over it as he is figuring out how to run really tight to your line. Don’t try to change to the other side of him til he has passed you and looked at the bar (which might be why you end up jumping it too at first LOL!)– since he has a great stay, you can teach him to love you being right next to him and also to change sides with this game:
I am teaching her to let me get very close to her on the RC line (apologies for the pajamas haha) and then when I change sides, to turn her head the new direction. She is in a stay, I am moving behind her (rewarding that a lot) and then moving up on a rear cross line very close to her and rewarding when she turns her head the new direction. You don’t need to use a clicker, you can use a release marker or ‘get it’.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
That was weird – he looked happy (not in pain or stressed by anything) so it might have had more to do with the tire being the first obstacle, and you trying to turn to obstacle 2. They was changing his line a bit, making it hard to organize the jumping effort for the tire. When you cued it straight, he got it with no problem.
He might need more experience with the tire as obstacle 1 and also on slight angles on course. It is challenging footing because he can’t really adjust really quickly (he was dropping bars here when you were late on the cues) so he might be going around/under the tire to avoid hitting it if he isn’t sure what the turn is.Did he take the tire as part of a sequence in the class that night, or was it always obstacle 1? Let me know what you think!
Tracy
