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Good job working the stays in front of the MM here! That was the hardest part for him: sit and stay in front of the MM 🙂 Great job with all of the rewards!!!
As you built it up to use both jumps, we could really begin to see some true jumping form! He is looking good! The MM makes his sit to line up a little ‘sticky’ but he will get faster and faster with practice. But since this is going so well. you can move to the next step which involves the moving target. I am posting that up in a few minutes. It involves the toy from the pre-game 🙂 and the set point.
Nice work 🙂
TracyHi! He was looking happy and fast here too!!!
Now that he is flying and driving to the jump, you don’t need to rush – be sure to make a big connection on your new side after the FC so he ends up on the correct side of you. At :24 in the Baby Level and at the beginning of the Advanced level towards the end of the video, you were going really fast but didn’t quite get connection so he ended up on the other side of you. Compare that to 3:15 and the last rep where you make a very clear eye contact connection and he was perfect!!!
He did really well in the advanced level game, ignoring the toy on the ground to do the wing wrap but then driving to it when you cued it. Yay!
He only had one other small question – he didn’t commit to the wrap at 1:30. You were pretty far from the wing – that is good to add distance, but be sure to use your dog-side leg on the send along with the arm and verbal. You didn’t move your dog-side leg forward, so he was not sure if he should go that far away.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>we had a cooler weather today and Charlie was on fire!>>
I wonder if some of his recent unwillingness to work has to do with the increasing heat? Maybe he is not yet heat acclimated, because he was born and raised so far during cooler weather. He was definitely feeling good here!!
Nice work on these – Great job with your connection and with your verbals! He is really doing well with these little sequences. He was almost perfect with the beginning sections of all of them, then there was a little blooper towards the end of each. That is partially because it is hard for him to maintain the focus required at that speed, and partially because it is hard for you to maintain the connection and verbals he needs for that long (baby dogs need a LOT of support 🙂 ) So keeping the reps a little shorter, maybe only 4 or 5 things in each little sequence, will help and over time you can gradually extend the length.
Also, one other detail: when he is doing well and you want to keep going… don’t start saying “Yes” 🙂 When you say “yes”, he perceives it as a reward marker so he stops looking at the line and looks at you. So you can say something line “get it” if you want to reward, or if you want to continue the sequence you can give the next verbal directional.
Great job!
TracyHooray for bare ground!!
These smiley face games looked great! You did a great job with the connection and verbals, and she had very few questions. Just about everything looked great and you showed her a lot of handling. She only had 2 little questions:
At :48 you did a spin on the wing to get the other side of the tunnel. The spin was great! Just be sure to move more to the tunnel entry you want – you ended up moving a bit back towards the tunnel entry you didn’t want, so that was where she was heading for a heartbeat. You adjusted the line and she was then able to get to the tunnel entry.
At the end, she didn’t commit to the wing at 1:07. You were trying to rotate earlier (which is good!) but in this case, you rotated before she passed you and you looked towards the tunnel. If you rotate before she passes you, that is fine, but shift your connection (and arm) to look at and point to the “landing” spot past the wing, to help support commitment. On the very last rep, you waiting a little longer to rotate and that also helped support her line.
As the snow continues to melt, you can keep expanding the distances here so both of you get to run run run more 🙂On the wrap versus tunnel game: this is going well! She had a blooper on the irt rep because you mvoed and said the verbal at the same time. On the 2nd rep, you let her hear the verbal a few times before you let her go and that made a MASSIVE difference! Yay! So keep doing those mechanics, even when you are starting with the tunnel.
As she exits the tunnel, be sure to make a big connection and don’t block the wing so she can see it easily and drive to it. Also, I think some of her occasional hesitation after the tunnel was that she was waiting for the toy throw, so be sure to use markers like “get it” rather than “yes” so she clearly understands if she should look for a toy or continue playing the game.
Great job on these!! Let me nkow what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The MM definitely adds a layer of excitement to the WIYH game! On the first couple of reps, the connection was what her question was about – as you were moving away, you ad a lot of motion but not very direct eye contact so she didn’t come to your left side. The distraction of the MM definitely contributed to that! But than at :25, you really emphasized the connection and she got it! Yay!So if she ends up on the wrong side, you can reward anyway because it was more of a handling error – every time after that when you made clear connection, she nailed it. Once or twice you were not as clear and she ended up on the wrong side. After about the 1:00 mark, you got into the groove and it looked great from different positions! My only suggestion is that when she is ahead of you and you are clicking the MM, keep moving (you were decelerating and we don’t want to muddy the decel cue). You kept moving perfectly when you were ahead!
>>I had to play with the distance of the wing & the MM to find the sweet spot where she could work & find the parallel path and where she wasn’t so BOING-Y over the jump.>>
I think you totally found that sweet spot! Looked good!
She was so good with the set point!
>>She really could tell this was a new game and was very focused on figuring out the “rules”. She was very serious and attentive when I set her up with the cookie!>>
Yes, it made me laugh: she was ALL BUSINESS! Her stay is looking good, especially with you crouching down!
The intro section looked good and I am especially happy with the 2 jump set point! She was showing REALLY strong form and no boingy boingy 🙂 Perfect!! I think 3 feet is the correct distance for now (it might change as she gets older and as the bars get added.
Don’t add the bars yet – we have one more thing to add (stay tuned, it is coming today) and then we can get started on the bars. She is about a year old now so we can begin the bars, bit by bit, but no rush.
Great job here! More games coming later today!!
TracyI’m glad you have a plan for next week! Let’s get this chapter over with and the next one started.
>>Any other ideas?
Maybe mini nose work games, like hiding a treat in a pile of towels, or in cardboard for him to shred?
Or a series of targets in the grass, with a great on them, for leash walks. Nose work can be a great mental workout.
Also, trazodone if needed – it really helped when Hot Sauce had her patella fixed.Setting up closer will get more of the push from the rear, and better organization stepping into the grid.
THi!
>>. I’m not sure why I forgot I’m supposed to use it 🤷♀️! But I sure did forget. I was then Like oh yeah, I forgot all about that 🤣!!!>>
Ha! Some folks don’t like to use the outside arm, but it is really helpful here!
>>This was a fun sequence!!! She rocked it!!! Gosh it made me think 🤣😊!I think I suffered brain fatigue🤣. I really tried to be more timely with all my verbals! I think all the equipment behind made her go super wide for the wing turn. This was our second time through it, I forgot to hit record the first time! I was like 🤬! That’s the worst🤣🤣. She rocked the first time too!>>
She nailed it!!! YAY!!!! No worries about the wide turn to the wing in the middle – there was no line to lock onto so she was probably looking for a line 🙂 The rest looked great – the opposite arm definitely helped! And after the very last backside, you can do a spin to the last jump instead of a post turn to tighten it even more.
Next challenge: after you send to the wing in the middle, layer the jump on the tunnel send and do the switch away form the tunnel exit to the jump while you are on the other side of the purple jump! Eek!
have fun 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Thanks for the great advice on the tunnel/wing games. How often should we work on this game?
On the set point raising the bar, should I do that one more time this week with the 2nd bar raised 2″ or wait until next week since you said this is one to do only once a week.>>You can space things out so she plays an agility game every 2 or 3 days. The games are working the dogs harder now, physically and mentally, so you don’t really need to do them every day. So the wing-tunnel game can be spread out every 2 or 3 days, and the jumping stuff can be once a week (different day than the other stuff). So the next set point can be over the weekend, which will give her brain and body a nice break from it 🙂
The wing wrap pre-game with food and toys looked good, no trouble at all on either! She had to work a little harder when you were further away, but overall I think she did super well on both!!!
>.My plan for today is WIYH again and possibly the tunnel/wing discrimination, >>
Since she has already done almost 8 minutes of wing wrapping today, skip the wing-tunnel discrimination for two reasons – no need to add more wrapping to her body, plus she will be in wrap mode making it harder to get the tunnel. the WIYH game has some wraps, so don’t do too many reps of that either so we avoid too much repetition of the same movement.
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Awww Rudy!!!! He looks great! Just make sure he doesn’t get run over LOL!! Older dogs have no understanding of personal safety issues. Baxter was a good boy to not run into him.
The wing wraps at the beginning look great, and it was smart to warm up with those outdoors.
The wing-tunnel-wing-tunnel commitment and connection are looking fabulous!!! And so are the soft turns. You decelerated for too long on the soft turn at 3:44ish and that ended up pulling him off the line, so keep trusting him and running line you did on the previous soft turn and on the last rep with the soft turn too, those were great!
Now about those verbals…
>>It went pretty well I think until the very end where I’m aware that I used the wrong directional for Baxter. I’m finding using verbals very challenging – never did them with the older dogs other than GO and the contacts so wrapping my mind around which word goes with which direction is killing me. I looking at it as one of those mind games to keep your brain sharp as you grow older, but I’m really worried about screwing up poor Baxter>>
You won’t screw him up! And I totally understand how it is hard to add 10,000 new verbals after literally a decade or so of not using them. It is a brain-melter for sure!!! But again, you won’t screw him up 🙂 My best advice here is to take a longer moment before each rep and give yourself a mental walk through of the verbals. I do this while I am tugging: “Ok, this next rep will be right turns, so I need to say right right right”. That really helps me get it correct! My guess is that you were very engaged with him, and didn’t take that moment to plan the verbals. So, take that moment (and it gives you both a moment to breath :)) for the planning of each rep and then you will see the verbals get easier and easier.
Looking at the set point:
This looked good! Rudy was an excellent supervisor here LOL!
>>I’m wondering if I should raise the jump bar a little bit? It’s locked in at 4” here but outdoors it seems like it’s low enough that Baxter is more running over it than jumping. >>
He is definitely jumping. And the form looks good! I think you were seeing his quick feet happening here so it looked like running, but it was actually jumping. He is looking good!
The stay is definitely looking better! YAY!!!! And you had the target moving here too on at least some of the reps (but you were out of the frame a lot so it was hard to tell which ones) and he looked great – no rushing or anything. He was frozen in the stay on the last one – maybe because the target was not moving? I don’t think he was tired, but ya never know with these teenagers LOL!! It is possible he needed a runabout 🙂
Since this session went so well here is a plan for the next 2 sessions:
– next session, maybe on Thursday or Friday of this week, repeat this session but use the moving target on all reps.
– if that goes well and he is largely successful, the session after that (maybe next Sunday or Monday) – repeat the same thing except raise bar #2 to 6″ 🙂 Do you know how tall he is? I am 99% sure his full jump height will be 8 inches, yes?
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This is the wing-tunnel proofing game. Good job being nice and close to the wing/tunnel to start, that really helped him! And I loved your big rewards when he got it right 🙂
One suggestion: Try to be more systematic on the start of each rep: hold his collar, start the verbal, then let go. That will allow him to process the verbal before you both start moving, and that will set up a lot more success. Plus it gives you a moment to clarify the verbal for yourself so you don’t add in extra “go” cues or say digdig before the tunnel cue 🙂Nice work on all of these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
