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Good morning!
>>Sits are a perennial work in progress
For this game, you can use a stand stay and maybe start her a little further back from the wing in case of creeping 🙂
The flatwork looked good!
When you added the bars – it got much harder 🙂 I think the angle of the 2 jumps were too challenging here, they were almost flat, which might be why she had trouble doing the stay (really difficult challenges make stays disappear, especially if she didn’t love the stay to begin with). So you can definitely use the stand!The toy placement was spot on, so definitely keep doing that. For the next session, open up the angles so she sees an easier line, and drop the bars on notch (again, so it is easier, to help develop the form).
She was stronger on the last few reps when she had to jump to the right on the first jump! For the next session, start going that direction, with her right shoulder next to the jump. Then you can switch to the other direction (left shoulder next to the jump) after a couple of reps.
When she is looking very comfy on both sides (no dropping bars, and powerful bouncing, you can leave the bars low but tighten the angles up a bit in the session after that.
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning!
I am so sorry to hear about Baxter. He was such a wonderful guy!!! And I know you will miss him terribly 🙁
Yes, all the class videos are posted so you can work through at your own pace. Take your time, we have plenty of time.
He is doing well with all the games here!! Some thoughts on the videos:
Leading with the head:
yes, he totally has his head down! And It looks like he is a righty – the turns to the right looked easier and smoother for him than to the left. That is good to know. Since he is moving with his head down, we can now get him bending his neck/turning his head before he arrives at the wing, which will set up even better turns 🙂 Both directions had better head turns to the wing when you cued it in the 2nd half of the video with the little cue to take the wrap again. And it was that 2nd rep (send to wing, cue to wrap again) that was the best! So lick/treat those, rather than do multi wraps because after the 2nd rep, he got wider and lost a bit of the head turn.Motion Overide – yep, he did seem to think it was a bit of the herding definition of sit LOL!!! But no worries, he was getting it back with you helping him. Good boy! For now, to help him get back to the agility sit 🙂 you can slow down your motion a lot so you don’t have to turn to him to get the sit. Then throw the cookie back to him, so he doesn’t need to be near you to get into the sit.
Onwards to organizers!
I agree with you that his ‘place mat’ needs to be a little longer because, well, he is a Corgi 🙂
He did two types of sits here: tucked (when his front feet don’t move and his rear tucks under) and rocked back ( when he rolls back into the sit). Conditioning protocols use both types of sits, and I liked the tuck sits a whole lot for our purposes here – 2nd rep and :35 for example – because of how he positions his back feet under him. That positioning will ultimately make for great takeoffs, so let’s keep working for those. His back feet were further back under his bum on those reps 🙂 When you got those, he was coming in a bit straighter to you and you were rewarding high. The rock back sits were happening more on the angled entries and when the pad was moving, so for now stick to straighter entries and very very gradually add the tiniest bit of angles to maintain that lovely tuck sit!On the plank – he was a good boy about getting on it at speed, but wanted to do the down because you were so far away. So for now, stay closer to him at the end of the link more like what you did at :40 and afterwards: that position got the sit AND got the good tuck 🙂 Yay! In the next session, change your position so he can do it at your side (you will still be close to the end of the plank) rather than facing him, which will lead us into the next games really nicely.
Zig Zags – good refreshers of the flat work, no questions from Mr. G on those. Great job with the position on the set up and his stay was lovely – and the little lead changes were easy peasy. Yay!
Adding jumps – watching the fancy playlist 🙂 we can make a couple of changes to help him out necause he had some form questions:
The bars are a little too “flat” here, meaning it is too challenging to find the line between the jumps which is why he had reps of running past the setup. So, open the angles so he can very easily see the straight line through the jumps to the reward, then we can gradually close them up.
Also, drop the height of the bars here to 4 inches til we get his head down – he is jumping these with his head up to your hand, which inverts his spine a bit (when this happens, you will see him look a bit choppy like a bronco and we want him to look more like a dolphin, nice and rounded). It was better when you were bending over to help him but we want you to be he would still use your hands a a target LOL! Smart boy 🙂So to get his head down, separately from the jumping game, revisit the moving target games to help him look down the whole time. He definitely likes the reward you were using, so maybe if you attach it to a line and drag it he will look down more and not up at you. Try it without the jumps at first so that you can sort out what he needs to use to look down the whole time.
Then when he focus downward to the moving target the hold time and has more of the dolphin form 🙂 You can add it back to the low bars and open setup. I think as soon as we lock into the head down position, it will be really easy for him to power through these – he definitely has the power!!Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracySo fun!!! I didn’t know they were littermates!!
For the first platform, try maybe 12″x12″ if you have something that size and see how it goes. If it is too big, we can go smaller. For the plank, I used a narrow aerobic step for my BorderPap-ish dog, and that worked – it is about 12″ wide and maybe 24″ long.
TracyI didn’t know you were a judge! Cool!!!
Congrats on the WCO Finals! That totally is fuel to add tools for Cyno and next year. 🙂 yay!!!
Hi!
>>On the head down with motion, should I focus on more movement from me or add a jump?>[
Add the jump!
>>On the ZZ you say to work all angles, since the dogs position relative to bar does not change are you referring to handler position?>>
I must have mistyped or been under-caffeinated 🙂 the angles are on the organizers 1 game, where we do the around the clock approaches. 🙂
TracyHi!
Yes, when adding the motion it was good to go to the double foam board, he did really well here! He was definitely wanting to be forward based on your motion (weight in his shoulders) which made it harder for him so it 🙂 But he did! Good boy! You can dial back your motion so you don’t end up stopping with him – he was also wanting to cue off of your deceleration, but we want him to use his hind even when you are staying in motion. So move a little less fast but keep moving the whole time, until you see him tucking his hind end immediately without shifting forward to his front then to his back. It will probably happen in the next session – and then you can add a little more motion and also add it to the wing 🙂
On them motion override – yes, a little bit of manspread LOL! But the flatwork here is more about the concept and he was gtting it nicely. Do one more session of this… and don’t let yourself decelerate when you are cuing the sit. In a smaller space, you will have to move more slowly to be able to stay in motion, or take the game to the park where you have a ton of room to keep moving. Staying in motion will help him organize without relying on deceleration.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!!!
OMG, I bet you end up in someone else’s TikTok doing crazy things at the park LOL!!!
Good clicks on the lead with the head game. He is a little better on the right turns (maybe because you did them 2nd or maybe because he is a righty). He was REALLY good when you started him sideways to the wing after :23.
One thing I noticed with his head turns here is that he is GREAT turning his head after the wing… so now we will shape our way to getting him to turning his head before the wing. By the end of the video, he was already starting to do it 🙂 So a couple of ideas for you:
– start each session with him sideways so you can ‘flick’ him away to get the head turn before the wing, and start him turning to his right (after a couple of reps you can switch to a left turn).
– change the reinforcement to further make the head turn before the wing exciting 🙂 Your cookie toss placement at 1:05 and 1:13, for example, was PERFECT. So to get him wanting to turn his head more, you can use a toy and run to where you tossed the cookies, so he can chase your for the toy 🙂 It would be: send from your left side, click the head turn, then you do a FC and run to where you tossed the treats here and give him the tug from your right hand (just don’t run into the swings or any playground equipment :))I see below this video that you say he is more food driven than toy driven, so you can modify that reinforcement to be you running then throwing the cookie, if you think it will have more value than a tug toy. I mean, food is life for me too, so I can totally relate LOL!
On the moving target games, I can see that he is looking up at your hand on the release and was getting better and better by the end of the session in terms of looking down at your toy. So you can keep going with that… or we can use food rewards to get the behavior faster 🙂 Do you have a lotus ball or treat hugger? You can put food in those and tie them to a line for him to focus on. Or you can use a plastic bowl on a line with some cream cheese in it 🙂 We can train the forward focus on the toy, but the food rewards will get him there faster because he will really want those 🙂
He did great with the jumping distractions! You were hilarious! He seemed to read it as a game, not as pressure so he was game to keep doing it even though you were being strange LOL!!! Plus, the high rate of reinforcement helps him a lot.
He is ready for the zig zags!
I see the organizers below, be right back with ideas for those 🙂
TracyHi!
I like what she is doing with the moving target in terms of form! In fact, you can definitely add to this game by raising the bar a little 🙂 The low bar went well, so maybe raise it a notch or two next time and see how she does. She is going to want to rush and if she touches the bar, you can pull the toy out and give her a cookie instead as a bit of feedback 🙂 If she keep the bar up? Toy party time! That can also serve as part of the jumoing distraction foundation 🙂
The motion override sits are also going well – you can see there is a slight delay in her response to the sit (especially compared to the down) because in the sitm she has to organize her hind end differently. As a Border Collie, the down is very easy for her LOL! So keep working the sit so that she gets faster at organizing her bum 🙂
You can also move on to the zig zag foundations and the organizer games!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
Yes, it is fine to post a couple of games at once, then slow the training down when we get more into the actual jumping.
>>Also, it is my understanding that we can combine everything in one day provided we are not adding jump bars, correct?
Because the games still have quite a workout to them, I would not do all of things in one day because she will get fatigued even without jump bars (those sits games are harder on the dog than they look!). And if she fatigues, she will lose form for the games later in the day and that can carry over into fatigue/soreness the next day too. So, spread them out so she does one or two things a day, then something else the next day, building in rest days in between as the bars get added.
>>Maggie has a “U” neck and her shoulders are rough (meaning up high, they do not lay back). I do not know if this will make is tougher for her to keep her head down. when she swims she carries it up high.
The moving target will help her keep her head down – placement of reward will be key for her (and everyone) on these games – if the reward comes from your hand up high, she will lift her head too much. I think she looked really good here! Her head position is what we want even when you are running, so the moving target will be effective. Super!! My only suggestion is to make sure she starts and stops on a stop with no ice, so she doesn’t slip as she gets moving or decelerates to stop.
The motion override also looks really strong – her sits looked fast and tight! Yay! She had one rep where she went into a down, sorta – but that might have been more that you were not looking at her on that one and you were looking at her on the others? So you can take 2 approaches to the next session:
– yes, add more motion but look at her when you cue the sit
– also, dial back your motion and *don’t* look at her when you cue the sit 🙂 Lack of connection is a good distraction and it is something the dogs see on course (they have to organize to jump while we disconnect for blinds) but you don’t want to add a lot of motion to it til she can do it without a lot of motion.>>Do you want us to start zig zags now or do you want better organizer foundation before we start the ZZs?
You can move into the zig zags now! Those don’t use the organizer platforms, so I think she is ready for those. And the organizer games can start when she is doing well with steps 1 and 2 of the organizers as well.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I did make an edit to the earlier post so maybe that changes how you see it from your end?
It is possible that something didn’t refresh quite right, but it is also possible that I scrolled right past it due to my 3:15am wake up to get to the airport. It is likely not something you did on your end 🙂
The moving target looks really strong, he is moving just how we want him to. When you bring this to the grids, you can lead uot even more so you are a solid feet feet ahead of him when he lands from the 2nd jump of the grid (the joys of such a good stay – you can lead out as far as you want!) He looks excited by this but is also not losing any organization: perfect! This game can now be moved to the zig zags.
Good job refreshing the lead with the head game – even way back in MaxPup, he was great at this and it helped translate things into great turns on course (he has aleays been a great turner too!) His leading through the head here was translating to a nice bend of the body, which is exactly what we want. I use this on a wing as a warm up during trials (using a wing of the practice jump) to get that lovely bending going.
He is also doing well with the sits! I think the only suggestion here is to have you stand up – having him look up more will help the tight sits by raising his head (which is the advice I get from the conditioning people LOL!) plus it is easier on your back. When you were fully upright after about 1:12, he was organizing better! It is also possible that the pressure of leaning over was backing him off a little, thus the less clear sits then when you were standing up.
You had some around the clock approaches happening here too, he did really well setting up his hind end!! For the next session. start with a couple of around the clock approaches to the donut puzzle box 🙂 as a bit of a warm up & reminder, then move the session to the longer plank to prep for the next steps.
Great job! Let me know how it goes!
TracyHi!
She looks strong in both directions here! I think maybe she is a righty because the right turns looked ever so slightly easier? But the left turns looked good too – she is definitely leading with her head! You can bring this game to a wing outside too, so she doesn’t try to fit between the 2 uprights LOL!
If you’ve tried a bit of the other foundations, you can start the organizers and zig zag games.
Great job!
TracyHi!
The jump proofing video looked great and also, it was hilarious. You were doing crazy things and I don’t think he ever changed expressions at all LOL! Good boy! You can revisit this there and there using gradually higher bars. And if he does knock a bar somewhere (in this game or in sequencing or at a trial), take a note about what was happening when he touched it. That way you can find patterns and work on them in this silly game 🙂 I don’t recall any particular jumping questions from him so it is possible you won’t find any patterns.
He did really well on the motion override – you were able to get a good amount of motion going and he was responding correctly every time. Super!! So many dogs can’t process the sit cue when the handler is moving faster, so he gets a big gold star for that! With more of your motion, the latency was higher which tells us a bit about processing time with the motion distraction, which is good to know!
Also, sitting on the flat while processing the motion, had his knees/toes a bit outside the line of his body – so now we can add the platform work in to build the tight sit into this. The platform and plank will help with the organization of the hind end and might even lower the latency, because it provides a clear visual. Start without your motion to get his organization going on the platform and plank, then I bet we can add it back in really fast.
Great job!
TracyHi! Great to see you here 🙂 and any gumbiesque traits that Coal brings will be very helpful LOL!!
Have fun!
TracyHello and welcome!!!
Yes, Miss Momo wants to be responsible for her own organization 🙂 have fun! I’m looking forward to seeing how she does!
Tracy
