[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Nice work on the pop outs!!

Pop out 1: very strong opening each time! He read the serpy line very nicely!
On the 3-4-5-6 line, I think keeping him on your left made the most sense and created a clear line (the 3rd rep). The FC on the 4 tunnel exit (and the BC there at :27) and the RC on 5 almost pulled him off 6 on the other reps. The dog-on-left line looked great!

Pop Out 2: You can use a threadle wrap on 3 (or lap turn) here – the slice on 3 creates a really hard line to the #4 tunnel, and the threadle wrap to the inside sets a reall nice line.
Based on how the tunnel is set here, I think 6 can also be a threadle wrap, but the threadle slice also sets up a pretty easy, fast line for him – the slice is probably faster on the 6 jump here because it is a smoother line to get into the tunnel than the slice exit of the #3 jump is, for ths pop out.

Pop Out 3 & 4 video:
this started out with a pop out 2 run and it looked good!
When you added the speed from the DW, you can see how much harder the slice is on 3 to set him up to find 4 easily. So I think on this one, the threadle wrap on 3 is great and possibly the threadle slice on 6 is faster for him.

On pop out 3 & 4 –
The threadle slice on 3 definitely sets the better line to 4! It looked good each time.
For 6 at 2:32 & 3:18, you were showing the line to the off course jump so he took it 🙂 You had better position at 3:47 and 4:19, which easily brought him through the gap! You can also do a FC to a BC in that gap to pull him throuh more easily – the FC will get the turn and get you moving off his line, and then you can do a BC on the flat to get him on your left side – it is like a spin, but a bit more spread out 🙂

Great job here! Onwards to the live video!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

On this course, the same theme holds true – keep moving towards the obstacles so your motion is the main cue and really supports each line.

You can see that being needed in the opening: As you move through the 2-3 line, you can closer to 2 as a serp to set the line to 3, and run more to 3. Do this with motion and eye contact as the main cues, using less arm pointing – pointing forward tends to turn your motion cues away from the line too soon. You can see that being closer really helped at 2:15, and you can be even closer – being an arms length away on serps works really nicely.

She had a little trouble knowing which jump after the tunnel #6 on the way to the weaves – If you want to layer on the way to the weaves, start your out cue (verbal and physical) before she enters the tunnel – the verbal can definitely come a little sooner for her there, plus the physical cues all told her to take the jump she took: if your shoulders were turned forward, she took the off course, If you got way ahead and turned your shoulders to the line, she took the correct jump 🙂

In the middle section:
The weaves – 15 looked good the first time! Super!!!! On the second run, you curled away from the backside at 2:32 so she took the front.

At :59 and 2:50 – you were curling the physical cue away from the line so she didn’t take the 17 jump, even with the verbal (same with jump 16 at 2:48). So that is definitely a spot to keep moving forward until you are extremely sure she is heading to the jump and will take it.

Getting the 19 tunnel on the closing line:
the first rep looked good at 1:05 with the blind! She needed more connection to turn away into the tunnel there. The rear crosses can work nicely there too, especially to get her turned to the weave entry, but you will need to turn to face your feet to the tunnel. When you kept your feet pointing forward past the entry, she was not sure if you wanted it or not.

On the closing line:
weaves to the end looked good the first time through there! On the last rep, you turned away from it so she didn’t take it. So keep moving forward on the line to get her on it 🙂
Your motion is more powerful than verbals, so definitely add more motion toward the lines to support all of the good verbal an connections 🙂
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Looking at the 2 jumpers runs, you did a great job with the verbals and connections! One theme has emerged on both of these courses (and you can see it in the earlier courses too): Overall, you can move towards everything more, with your motion as primary cue (and with connection) until you see her looking at the jump and locking onto it. You were tending to move your feet off the line (which caused your sholders to turn as well) before she actually got onto the line, so even with he good verbals connection, she was not sure of where to be. So run forward to everything more, and most of these refusals will disappear 🙂

Course 1:

Opening – She is responding well to the threadle rotation here. You can use a wrap verbal on 3 to help get collection for the threadle, I think you were saying “left” but that doesn’t indicate enough collection.
then stay connected to indicate 4 and move towards it rather than point and turn your feet away. When you were closer to it and moved towards it, she got it really well 🙂 And also had good commitment to 5 when you moved to it.

The 7 jump was harder to get commitment to, because you were moving away from it so she was not sure where to be. So keep moving towards it, watching her head, until you see her lock onto it – then you can move away while maintaining connection.

In th emiddle section from 1:07 – 1:27, you had a lot of that moving towards the jumps to get the commitment and watching to be sure she committed, and it looked really great! Yay!!!

Just a little more connection needed on exit of 13 at 1:28 – your motion was towards the tunnel and she could not see which line to be on, so that is a spot for direct eye contact with your arm back to let her know you want her on your left.

You asked about where to be for the weave entry here:
You can either do a blind 14-15 and send to 16, or you can keep her on your right and do a rear cross on the flat. It is a hard entry for sure, and more of a trained skill than a handled skill.
You can then handle the weave exit on your right, layernig the 15/7 jump, so you can meet her at 18 to get the backside push or a threadle wrap on the inside wing. which puts you closer to 19-20.

Then stay connected on the exit of 18 at 2:04 so she knows which side to be on: basically, make direct eye contact on the exit of every cross so she has clear info about which side to be on. And for the ending line (2:27) drive forward as close to 19 as possible, might even need an ‘out’ there to find the 20 tunnel. It is pretty far away and she will need the motion support to find it.

Great job here! Onwards to course 2!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I am so glad you had fun and found so much to work on! I hope his gastro issues are all cleared up now.

The reps on the video looked good!

I think his success with finding the first jump of the layering surprised you on that first rep 🙂 The praise pulled him off the line, which is good to know when you want himto keep going 🙂

On the 2nd rep – at :23 when he is beginning the layering, you have time to keep moving parallel to his line (on the other side of the tunnel) and still easily get back to the front cross. Standing still and sending caused him to ask questions about if he should collect or keep going, which is why the bar came down.

The blind worked really well too, on the 3rd rep at :38! On the BC here and the FC on the previous rep, I think ou went a little too far past the line (too much between the uprights of 4 so he was a little wide on the landing line. You can head more towards the entry wing of 6, which should show him the line really well.

The ending section of 7-8-9-10 looked great! Super!!!

>>QUESTION: Are you going to have any other classes in the coming months that are appropriate for open level dogs?>>

Yes – mini classes 🙂 These will be short-form handling classes and skills classes that will take us through the winter. The first one will be posted next week and will start in October 🙂

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>So if I raise it and she jumps wrong, I just go back lower again?

I think we can raise the bars slowly in tiny increments to maintain her form. For example:
Do another session like you did here. Then, on the next session after it, start with the same height for a rep or two as a warm up. Then put the bar up by 2 inches, do a couple of reps with the same toy placement – then end the session with a rep or two on the lower height.

If she looks good in real life and on the video, do the same session one more time. Still good? The session after it can start at the higher height for a couple of reps, then the bar goes up 2 inches, then back down to end the session. So we will be very gradually raising the bar, but she won’t have to think about it too much and can easily maintain form.

>>My arm was high on the send from the tunnel with her on my left again but I did push out my leg. I think she’s weaker on my weaker side. Baby dog stuff that needs practice.

Yes – She is definitely more comfy turning to her left ! Those reps looked good! I think your mechanics when she needed to turn to her right were good here – and she was asking question about how to organize herself, didn’t quite know how… and didn’t take the jump. When you did the big send on the 2nd jump, you were a little later and that worked well! And when you did the send from the exit of the tunnel at :58, you were closer to the jump as well, and it helped her.

One other thing you can do is change the reinforcement placement for the right turn sends: throw it to landing side as she is heading to the jump and before he takes it. That will help build up the confidence to get her to organize that jumping effort independently.

For the left turn sends, you can keep rewarding from you, as you a did here. She is very confident on those and finds it easy to turn.

>>Regarding toy…she doesn’t really chase me /toy. I did try it tonight. I guess the chasing feels like she’s focusing on me instead of driving ahead when I throw it.

That is OK for this game, because tight turns are handler-focus games. And also by chasing you, she will tighten her turns because the decel and sending predicts that Da Momma is going to turn and run the other direction, which gives her an idea of where to go after the turn. So you can turn, run, and throw the toy. On the left turns. Eventually you can do that on the right turns too, but for now you can throw the toy to the landing side of the right turns.

>>I tried the lead out blind and she took the jumps

Look at her on the opening of the bigger sequence! Yay! She looked very confident and found that opening line really nicely. She was taking nice long strides too, so you can start to inch those bars up as well and see how it goes!

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Yes, I am learning that he can be very precise. Means I kind of need to get and keep my shit together even on crazy fast, long technical courses. 🤞

You will be fine, because you will have more cues instead of just pure decal-only. And as he gets more seasoned, the verbals will begin to override the physical cues (that is the good news of not having to be precise, and also the bad news of spitting out the right verbal cue haha)

>>Got a hypothetical question. Say someone and their hypothetical dog do a USDAA or UKI show and are running in a class not declared FEO or NFC. If the hypothetical dog breaks their start line and the hypothetical handler wants to treat it the way they would at home or class and cheerfully reset him and either run with him or re-attempt the lead out. What would the judge do?>>

On the UKI side of things, I am 99% sure fixing the stay and leading out again cheerfully would be considered “repeat and move on”. That would mean the judge calls an “E” but allows you to continue. If you try to repeat something again, you will be asked to leave because your can only do one RMO per course.

I cannot remember the USDAA rule, so I will ask the experts aka Facebook hahahah

>>Asking for a friend. 🤣

Ha! Planning, planning 🙂 I will let you know what Facebook tells me 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I will break this up into several posts…>>

I will work through them all today, but it won’t be until later today/this evening when I can get to all of them.

Good job on these sequences! And it is great that you continue to practice the walk throughs, because those will really make that first run at a trial so much better. In all of the walk throughs, keep adding more speed, more verbals, and more direct connection.

ESC 1:
I think your first run did not match your walk through, and so the run didn’t go as well! You walked the threadle 2-3 but the first 2 runs had a FC 2-3 followed by a wrap – those were late and he had to jockey in behind you to get it. I think the threadle on rep 3 worked really well! Leading out to the FC more will help smooth it out, as will more very direct connection to his eyes (and your hand staying back) when you finish the FC.

On the first run at :47 – your voice said over for the layered line, but the body said tunnel so he went into the tunnel. The next reps had much better cues to the jump – more connection and motion for sure.

On the FC 6-7 you can start it even sooner, as soon as he is leaving 5 and looking towards 6. It was a little late, starting as he was lifting off, so he had a little trouble with the bar.

Seq 2:
yes, starting on the other side of 1 might’ve made the layering easier bu he got it nicely! The sequence looked really good!

One small detail: On the 2nd rep, you lead out more and had a little too much decel at the tunnel entry at :52 so he thought about the tunnel in stead of the jump line, for a moment. He had the same small zig-zag moment on the 3rd run because of the decel near the tunnel entry. The best line was the first one, where you led out less and drove the line, he was straight and fast to 2.

Seq 3:
He was not sure which side of 2 to take, based on the cues – they were the same at 1:19 (he took the front side) and 1:36 where he threadled. So for the threadle, you can release with the threadle cue so he knows immediately which side of 2 to be on.
The rest looked strong here too! You can start the RC on 9 after the tunnel sooner to get a smoother line – it looked more like you forgot where to be for a moment LOL! so keep running through to get the RC into the layering.

Great job here! I will be back later for the rest of the videos.
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

The opening line went well, especially on the 2nd rep where you kept moving and you were super connected! That was super nice!

About that 5 jump (threadle before the DW): you asked about how to be in the right place to handle it, and you were in the right place! It is a threadle wrap (she should turn right), so she will eventually be able to do it when you are nearer to the dog walk, or not near the jump, and while you are in high motion. Right now, her threadle wrap skills are not yet overriding all the forward motion. Breaking it down from the 3 jump so you can lead out a bit will help, then gradually add back more and more motion.

The 9-10-11 line (layering to the weave entry) is getting to be a popular course design trend. On the first rep through there, I think you over-helped by converging towards her at the entry and that confused her – you don’t need to rear cross the entry, you can blind cross the exit and that will be less yardage for you and easier for her too! You kept her on your left at 3:40, but then be sure to run at the 12 tunnel if you are rear crossing it as the stopping and sending doesn’t show her the line

At 3:48 you did the FC on the entry but you were a little in the way – she got it on the next rep but you would want to use more distance todo the layering so that the cross is finished before she even exits the tunnel.

On the closing line – she is really getting the idea of all this tunnel-under-the-dog-walk layering stuff! Yay!! You can turn her to her left on 16, that is a better line and will actually require less handling from you – by wrapping to the right, you have to step in to 17 to get the line, which puts you a little behind on the 18 backside.

Then on the 18 jump (2:29, for example) – keep moving through – no need for a switch to send her ahead. The cue started after she landed and you stopped moving, so she was confused. Keep moving forward and either keep her on your right or blind to your left.

The circle wrap at the end looked good! And then try to run right at 19.
And with all of them, running right at the line will really help her – stopping to send forward confuses her when the motion stops and the arm points ahead of her (breaks connection).

The only other spot that was hard was after the stopped contacts and rewards – she would often take the ‘obvious’ line not the backside or threadle line. So be sure to give yourself a strong lead out and cue the line as part of the release, so she can get it immediately.

Nice work! I will be back for the jumping courses later on.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Yes, this is a challenging one 🙂 The package 5 courses throw in just about all the skills from the summer LOL!

Opening through DW looked good! You can side change before or after the DW to get her on your right, so you don’t need to do the RC on the flat for the 6 jump, as that puts you behind for the weave entry.

Having her weave while you were moving to the other side of the DW was great! You can have a placed reward out past the end of the weaves to help her stay in as you add more distance – she had some successes but was popping out more after she learned the sequence, anticipating the next line. It is a great skill to work, because it puts you in great position for the 8 tunnel and 9 jump: the BC at the end of 8 was very effective!

The tunnel on the 11-12-13 is a hard discrimination. I suggest a get out cue after she commits to the 12 jump – use it to get her lead changed then cue the tunnel, before you try to add in the layering. You had a GO verbal happening but Go would keep her on the right lead, and a specific ‘get out’ cue would send her to the tunnel by moving her away from you and changing her lead. You can also remove the layered jump to work the skill, then add it back in when the discrimination is stronger in terms of the out cue as well as the tunnel versus jump verbals.

At the very end of the video, you ran right at it rather than sending forward to it… that was a big help to her!
Running right at the lines rather than decelerating or sending will help in other spots too, like at the 16 tunnel after the 2nd set of weaves: run at it! When you pointed forward and decelerated, she didn’t get enough motion or connection info so she had a lot of questions there.

You can also side change before or after weaves so that you can send to the 16 tunnel on your right to get the 17 jump like at 2:01 – the RC pulls her off the 17 jump, but getting her to commit to the 16 tunnel on your right easily helped her find 17. So you cam totally use your obstacle independence to change sides, so there are fewer rear crosses 🙂

Nice work! Onwards to course 2!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
He is doing better about ignoring the distractions!
He definitely has trouble with the other ring, so you can bring your pattern games to the fence line between rings as a mental warm up, on leash, to help him assess the environment and get the reinforcement going to ignore the other dogs/handlers 🙂 that will end up being a good pre-run warm up at trials, too!

When he did begin the sequence, he looked great on the 1-6 section! When you trust his focus more, you can do the blind 4-5 and the spin 5-6 (or a send) sooner. You were a little late here but you might have been watching to see what he would do, in terms of running the course or not. He was fast and accurate… until he had to run towards the other ring 🙂 Since he has trouble running towards the other ring and ignoring them, you can add in a cross or something that gets him chasing you away from the other ring to get rewards. For example, send to 6 then cross and run back towards 4 or 5 so he sees the other ring but doesn’t have to run past them yet.

Good job staying in motion even when he missed the jump at 2:33 & 3:19, because he was focused and stuck with you, instead of looking at the other ring. You needed to drive to it more (like at 3:57) and so that way he could see it AND ignore the other dogs 🙂

Nice work here! And it looks like your instructor was helping to keep him from running to the other ring (I call that “Air Traffic Control” haha) and that definitely helped him. Can you ask her to be out there for the first parts of the runs too?

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi – Lots of good work here – nice connection! And also, great job with the verbals! You had a lot of verbals going and that really helped her.

A couple of ideas for you to get things even smoother:
Seq 1:
Before the threadle wrap, you can cue a turn on 2 so she is collecting before takeoff )like a right verbal as you commit her to jump 2), then go to the threadle cues so she is already turning before you add in the threadle cues for 3. Good job staying in motion to get her to take the threadle. And yes it is ok to be pretty far from the jump, because you will certainly encounter threadles when you can’t get close to the jump: just keep moving towards the jump, try not to pull away from it as that makes it harder for her to find the correct jump.

On the BC 6-7 – at :12 it was late (bar down), but then your timing was better at :45 and GREAT at 1:03, and that set up more power into the layernig after it

She is definitely getting the hang of the layering! When sending into the layering, remember that she needs more connection and bigger cues like you did on the 2nd rep, to set the distance line.

Seq 2: One suggestion is to turn her to her right on 1, not left – the right turn lands her facing the line, which makes it faster and easier to handle.

Simmilar to sequence 1, the turn cue on 4 will help set up the threadle without you needing to stop your motion like you did at 1:31. She does a lot better with the threadle wraps when you keep moving (like at 2:34) and a turn cue on the jump before it helps her read the threadle cue better.

Running with her worked… but the layering puts you in much better position for that threadle (2:08 and 2:30 for example). Yay!

Seq 3 started off really well! Layering is going well!
You gotcaught standing still for the backside at 2:54, so she got the front. You moved directly to it at 4:20 and got it really nicely!

Looking at the threadle – you were using motion that involved pulling away too much (like at 3:16) – try not to pull back away from the threadle because then you are too far away from the jump to get her take it. And if it goes wrong, just send her to the previous jump to try again or reset with a cookie: trying to send to the threadle from a standstill doesn’t work because she needs to see motion into it.
(Side note: All of the threadle wraps were rewarded from your hand, you can get better commitment by rewarding with the thrown rewards so she looks at the jump more and at your hands less).

Seq 4 – a little hard to see because it was getting dark out, but it looks like the openng went well. The RC on 4 worked really well each time! Nic!

She had a little trouble finding the #6 tunnel. Part of it was that she is still learning the jump versus tunnel verbal discriminations. So to help her, you can add more motion to the layering so you can get to the tunnel #6 entry and do a FC like you did at 4:37 to help her see it, the verbals were late at 4:38 and you were hanging back, so she stayed on the line to the jump.

She had a little freestyling at 5:27 and took the jump instead of the tunnel, then a dropped bar on the next rep: probably too many reps so she was changing her behavior and was a bit mentally fatigued.

At the very end, one more suggestion: On the backsde at 5:47. try to point forward to it less, and make eye contact more with your arm back. When you pointed forward, she was coming into the front so you had to continue moving to the entry wing. If you keep the dog side arm back and out of the picture more, using more connection, she will go to the backside without you so you won’t need to get as close to the entry wing.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>.I only have 6 more videos to post after this one, haha!

Alrighty! It is a lot of video, so I probably won’t do them all in one sitting.

>>Since these videos were all taken before your comments about the last video, I’m sure some of the same issues are present, especially those involving a better way to keep going or making the decision to stop and reset, so expect to see that again, lol>>

Sounds good – definitely keep the resets and reinforcement and staying in motion for the next work you do.

Looking at P4, Course 2:

The opening section of 1-2-3 looked strong! Based on how the a-frame was set relative to 3, you needed a big wrap cue or maybe a spin to get a good line to it.
Turning to her right (wrap) in the 2nd part of the video allowed you to set a straigher line to the frame. So even though it looked like a left turn on 3 on the map, be sure to assess it on the ground and see which is the better line.

5-6-7 layering section: She is getting the han gof the layering! At :26, the blooper was not a break in connection as much as it was your shoulders turning towards the DW too soon. On the next rep, you moved forward for longer, so she got it better! And also it was very nice in the 2nd session later in the video!

Yes, at 8, don’t break the 2 failure rule 🙂
also, I would slice it the other way – push to the other wing so sh eis turning to her left over the bar not the right, to set up a better line to 9.
You can totally get the blind there after the tunnel if you wanted – looking at 2:16 and 2:33, for example, she is about 3 feet from the tunnel entry and you were just about where you needed to be for the blind.

Then give her more direct connection at :38, more like what you did at 2:36 where it was MUCH clearer!

10-11-12-13 looked good on the round and the layering at the 13-14-15 section looked GREAT both times! Yay!

When you repeated it later in the video: At 3:00, I think you were blocking the wing at 12, so you needed to stay there for one more step so she could pass you, plus step into it with your left leg to support her line there. On those wraps, you have a lot of time so you can give her more commitment support.

She was layering very confidently, so you had time to BC 15 to 16 so you wouldn’t need the threadle wrap 🙂 hat would put her on your left for 16, then so a reverse wrap so she turns tight and does the DW on your left side.

Backside after DW:

>> I was essentially doing a German turn but without a side change. Is there a name for that move?

I call it a backside serp. I think the OMD people might call it “running the dog’s line” or something.

>>If it’s a legit thing, should I have a cue to indicate coming to the same side rather than behind me? I have found that she sometimes will go behind me when I try it, and I think it’s because it looks so much like the German.>>

It is totally a legit thing! Connection differentiates the german to the serp here. To show the line more clearly, you can look at landing behind you, as you move through then maintain connection (3:29 and 3:59) so she knows where to be as she exits the wrap wing. You can do this more clearly by keeping your arm further back so she can see your eyes, making very direct eye contact, rather than using your arm to point to where you want her to be as that blocks connection

>>At 1:48, I did two backsides in a row rather than doing a tight wrap in the other direction. If the path to the next obstacles is decent from either side, I tend to try to keep her in extension rather than slowing down for the tight turns, which she hates anyway. In this situation, do you think that was the best choice? >>

It really depends on the least yardage and best lines – in this situation,we want to exit 19 as close to the 20 jump as possible. So then coming fromthe DW exit, which line gets us there the fastest? There is only one natural way to get from the DW to the 18 backside, the slice to the right like you did. So exiting that slice there: to set up the 2nd slice, you have to get a super tight turn on the exit of 18 and a massive push to 19, followed by another tight turn on the entry wing of 19 – 2 tight turns and a lot of distance. Looking at the wrap, you would not need a tight turn on the exit of 18 and it is shorter distance/easier line, so in this case I think doing the German on 18 and the wrap on 19 would be the best/fastest/easiest line to 20.

Nice job here! Onwards to Package 5!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>So left would indicate a tighter turn in this case. I do get confused sometimes when to use them and when to be quiet on soft turns.>>

Another way to think about it is, when making decisions: How much collection do you need on the takeoff side of the jump and where does the dog need to be over the bar to get on the best path to the next line?
On a wrap: LOTS of collection and very close to the wing.
On a left/right soft turn: definitely some collection, not quite as close to the wing

So on the wall to backside here, she can jump the wall in extension on the center of the ‘bar’ to have the backside line, and a moderate collection to get the front of the jump after the wall. So the left would be good for the front but not needed for the back. Agility is a bit grey in areas, so we have to take our best guesses for these turns/verbals.

>>She did smoke the serp line and that was one and done! I don’t feel like she’s that fast as I don’t have frenetic barking in my ear. But, she’s going to be fast once she has all of her confidence. She likes straight lines and decel is still a work in progress.>>

I agree – she is faster than she feels, because she is not barking and she is efficient with her lines, so you are getting further ahead. She is doing fine with the decels and turning – I prefer youngsters to have a TON of power and then we finesse the turns over time.

>>A question came up with a friend about BC timing for a contact. Once they are on the correct line to the contact can you blind before they actually get on it? That’s what I tend to do with Gemma who has excellent obstacle commitment. If not, what is the correct timing of a BC with contacts?>>

Do you mean blind cross on the line after the contact? So if the sequence was jump-aframe-tunnel, the BC would be between the frame and the tunnel? I agree with your Gemma timing: if the line makes sense, the dog has strong commitment and verbals, you can start the blind as soon as you see the dog heading to the a-frame. Otherwise, you will to start it no later than the first foot getting on it (running or stopped for the frame). You have a little more time on a stopped dog walk.

>>My next question is when to bump her up to 20 in? We are mostly practicing at 16 in as she sorts out handling maneuvers along with jumping effort. How do you determine when it’s time to learn the skills on the actual jump height?>>

I actually let my sports vet tell me when it is time 🙂 At about 18-19 months old, all of my dogs get an official assessment to see if we can start full height or not. When the doc clears us? We add the full height to one jump, easy lines, slowly, etc. All of my dogs start their trial careers at a lower height than what their full height would be. Full height jumping takes a lot of organization work, and the dogs have it in their working memory but not their procedural memory when they are young. And that takes up a lot of brain space, so when they need that brain space to handle the trial environment, there is not enough available: and something goes wrong. Either the jumping goes wrong, or they struggle with the environment. So I let them begin their careers at a height they don’t have to think about at all, so they can devote brain space to the environment.

This working versus procedural memory also explains why dogs often cannot see or do weaves in a trial (or contacts) – they do not have the brain bandwidth to handle the environment AND do the weaves, as the same part of the brain is trying to handle both. So I also start my young dogs in jump/tunnel only classes, so they don’t have to think about weaves til they are very comfy in the trial environment 🙂

>>Thank you so much Tracy! It’s always a pleasure to work with you.

It is always great having you in class! You have excellent training and handling skills, and it is so fun to watch your teamwork develop 🙂

>> Plus, I think I’ll do resilience with Sprite. It’s probably too late to reprogram Gemma. But, I’d like to get Sprite the best start possible. Gemma can play along for fun. It can’t hurt her.

The resilience stuff is amazing – what the neuroscience brings to us to help inform our training is very helpful!!! And Gemma will love it too 🙂 I teach my dogs all of the resilience stuff, whether I think they “need” it or not, because of course they need it haha!

Keep me posted! Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
It was so great finally see you two in person!!! He blew my mind, being able to do all the hard things for 6 DAYS! Amazing!
I am glad to hear the heat has broken and hopefully the smoke continues to be minimal!

And he looked good at 22″. Is he close to the 21″ cutoff? I have some measuring ideas if you need them, from dealing with world team measurements (when I coached Canada, they would often choose the team THEN measure the dogs) and from flyball 🙂

>>We have had an issue at a couple of shows last month where the jump standards are super light-weight and not winged PVC where as he jumps and is turning in the air his tail is wrapping sideways horizontally and hitting the flimsy wing and knocking it over or just enough to drop the bar. No idea if there’s anything to do about that, other than avoid venues with the super flimsy uprights/standards (and maybe tell them their standards suck). It doesn’t happen in this session but just remembering it from a few shows (NADAC and CPE where fewer or no jumps have wings).>>

Yes, I think the flimsier jumps do a play a role, as do the use of wingless jumps. So other than continuing to condition him to jump powerfully, you can add in a lot more wingless jumps so he sees them more regularly and doesn’t have to think about them. Is there also a difference in bar length? A 4 foot bar versus a 5 foot bar might make a difference to him as well.

On the decel video:
The one jump reps looked great. I am pretty sure he thought you were nuts (he was a little hoppy hoppy at first LOL) but then he was great. He was ever-so-slightly better turning to his left (better collection, better head turn). I think his commitment was great too, because we had stripped out so many of the commitment ‘helper’ cues. Good boy!

>>One weird rep where it was a send but I didn’t step to the jump at all and he opted for a rear cross wrap on his own (wrapped left when I was on his right).>>

Yes, I think he was reading your feet there. As you noted, try to be more forward-facing on your decels. When you were sideways, like at 1:19, there is an element of your feet facing the RC diagonal. On that rep, he exited the tunnel at 1:20 turning right, looked at you, and decided the cue said “left turn”. You can reward that, it was a good decision! Compare to 1:27 where your feet were facing the right turn wing, and he turned right (the big YES! over the bar probably brought it down)
I think he reads your feet a LOT more than we realize, as we see here and also on the sending (see below).

Nice sends at 1:44 and 1:49! The send at 1:58 was good too – he is a lefty, I think, because he considered turning to his left for a heartbeat then turned right.

>>Looks to me like he’s wrapping a little tighter to the left than the right.

YES! We have spent a year trying to figure out if he is lefty or righty LOL!!! Ha!

Adding the decel to the 2nd jump on the line was no problem for him either. He did look at you a little but that was more about “why are you so quiet, still, and disconnected?” LOL! When you handle ‘for real’, you would be more connected and there would be more motion and verbals, so he will have all of the supporting info and not just decel.

And about those feet: he barked at 2:50 when your dog side leg did not support the send and you looked forward rather than at him. So was it the leg/foot, or the connection that he was mad about? I think it was the footwork, like we saw earlier:
No bark at 3:03 and 3:56 and 4:11 when the leg was correct, you were insanely early (this is a good thing haha) and it didn’t matter if you were more connected (3:03) or looking completely forward on the other reps – he got the support from your feet. This is good to know!

The grown up weaving at the end looked strong too! So he has USDAA this weekend? FUN! Keep me posted!!!!

Great job here 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
The form on this grid definitely looks better! I grabbed 2 screenshots – they are a little hard to see because of the shade, but on the top one from Sept 6, you can see the difference in the head position which changes her shoulders and topline. Her head position is much better is this new video. Here are the screenshots:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19mdC01gBmnxD0gg8pRWKkuOvTY2DTPCmToiY4I1_v4c/edit?usp=sharing

On the 2nd video, the Decel looks really good! Considering how little we are cueing the behavior, I love how she is driving into the turns and setting up a tight collection.

The one thing I would add to it is more of you running so she chases you for the reward, which helps her drive back to you after the turn. It is a turn and burn moment! If you are stationary, even if you throw the toy, the drive around the jump is not as strong especially if you were a little late like at :42 and :49 (she ended up a bit wider there). You were on time at :59, she needed just a little more connection. You can totally use your GO verbals on the big go lines 🙂 but resist temptation to use them on the sends to the wraps.

She went around jump 1 at 1:02 – she was on an angle and you were lateral, so running around it was a pretty common young dog error. Try to have her facing it completely and you can be more visibly on the straight line and not lateral – isolate that skill on the lead out to one jump, so you can throw the reward and gradually move yourself further and further over

About the sends: it is all about your dog-side leg and a little about your arms 🙂 When she was on your left at 1:07, 1:23, and 1:42 , your dog-side leg stayed back so she was not sure if you wanted her to commit or not (plus your arm was really high). Compare that to the other reps (1:19 and 1:35) when she was on your right, your dog-side leg moved forward with the send and she was perfect each time 🙂

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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