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Hi! This all went really well!!!! He was highly successful on this and it is a hard skill!
On the first video, he was mostly perfect but had a few questions like at 1:01, 1:58, 2:08 when he gt ahead of you and ended up on the front side of the jump. To help him there, you can move after so you stay ahead, and looked more directly at him when you give the backside cue (not at the jump). The angled entry wing totally helped!!!
2nd video was just one rep but it looked great! And the backsides at the start of the 3rd video looked really strong too – yay!!!
On the countermotion, I think you will have an easier time if you toss the toy down low behind you (rather than across your body) – that can allow you to add in moving forward.
One other suggestion –
You can make the verbals sound more different: the wrap verbal can be very quiet and the back verbal can be super loud 🙂 That will help him differentiate and build even more independence.Great job!
TracyHi!
This one looked great too! And the end to the tunnel was a true threadle (not a FC). She is reading things brilliantly! FUN!!! So you can definitely add more challenge with the longer sequences, and feel free to submit even more video!
TracyHi! This is looking really good!! Nice job with all the verbals, and her commitment looks really strong. You can read things out to move faster with her – she is ready for more speeeeeed 🙂
At the end, you did a FC on the wing and then the tunnel threadle cue. After a FC, you don’t need the tunnel threadle because she is on the direct line to the tunnel entry. To use the threadle, you can use a post turn to keep her on your left and then the tunnel threadle will work great!
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Hopefully the April rain is finished and we have beautiful weather ahead 🙂Her barrel wrap (and later on – the wing) is looking great – she is really digging in driving to the barrel and finding the line after if. She did a great job finding the jump as you added more and more distance – super!!!!
Since her commitment is looking fabulous, you can do 2 things:
– add even more distance between the wing and the jump
– add your “go” verbal. You were saying your jump verbal, but you can use go for this because it is full on extension, and save the jump verbal for when you want jump commitment but a little less extension, like on a gentle turn line.She is definitely ready to see the week 2 games and beyond on this, with the rear crosses and backside wraps and decelerations for front side wraps 🙂
The smiley face game also looks great! The wing-to-tunnel warm up at the beginning looked great, in both directions.
The wing-tunnel-wing looked great too! On that section, I think her only questions were about when to start – o be sure to line her up at your side, and give a clear verbal and step to the wing to start each rep so she knows for sure that she has permission to start.One thing that you are doing brilliantly here is making your verbals sound VERY different. SUPER!! The soft turn/race track verbals are so different that she is easily able to know to NOT wrap when you use those. Click/treat for you!
She had a little question on the left and right soft turns – you can see it at 1:18, for example, when she is not entirely sure if she should stay out on the line or come into the gap. That was because you were pulling away a bit instead of staying on the parallel line, and opening up your shoulder a tiny bit too much: so she was asking if you wanted her to come towards you. To help keep her going on the soft turns, you can stay a little closer to the wings (moving in a parallel line to her line) and you don’t have to connect quite as much – a little bit of eye contact and your fingers can point to her nose 🙂At the end you had a bunch of fast & fun figure 8 rocking horses with the FCs getting earlier and earlier. Her commitment was very strong, and it looked best when decelerated into the rotation like at 1:39 and 1:46 and the last 2 reps, when she was really driving ahead into the commitments with beautiful turns.
When you had a more sudden stop-then-rotate, your dog side leg was not stepping forward as much (like at 1:37) so she had a question on those reps.The wrap proofing went really well! The first part where it was just wing or tunnel was easy 🙂 The advanced level of tunnel-then-wing was harder on both sides – you can see she was a tiny bit delayed in her turn, but she still got it right. Yay! The only time she ended up in a tunnel that she was not necessarily supposed to end up in was at 1:22, but I think that had more to do with the timing of the tunnel cue – she had not finished the wrap and was still seeing the tunnel… and that was the exact moment you said tunnel so in she went LOL!!! The rest was great :: She is ready for the next proofing games for sure.
Fantastic job with these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>That is good information about not overdoing the stationing. She is funny because when we go outside, with or without the boys and her little bed is set up or the upside down feed pans that the perch on, she races to them and leaps enthusiastically on them wagging her tail. I think it is easy for her when nothing much is going on, but if we do stuff with the boys then it gets harder. I will really be careful to limit that sort of thing.>>
I think the station indicates work/play, which is good! There is a misconception in agility that stationing is a way to help the dogs relax but it is just the opposite – it is work! And there is criteria to maintain… which means it is really hard especially with other dogs working. So doing a little is fine. But doing a lot is exhausting for the puppy and there might not be a lot of brain power leftover for other skills 🙂
The lateral lead outs looked great and Brad is a fabulous magician’s assistant by reminding you to walk the precise path. Thanks Brad!!
At :35 you said she wanted to come in… I don’t think so. She was looking at you as you got set up, but then when you released her she went immediately to the jump.
And her turns on the jump looked perfect, exactly what we want: commitment while also turning. And she adjusted the amount of turn based on your position. Super!
On the backsides – this is going well! She had an easier time doing to to her right than to her left, but that might also have been 2nd session versus first session and one latent learning happened between the 2 sessions.
Doing it from ahead of her really helped! So with that in mind, you can start moving a little faster, and on a straight line toward the backside so you are ahead and able to show the motion to support the line to the backside. And angling the jump really helped too!
The countermotion in both directions looked super! I think she is ready for you to play with the advanced level here!!!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi! This went really well!!! She found the backsides nicely!! The opposite arm seemed to help her, so you can keep that going if you like it or you can try it with a more intense connection and not as much arm to see how that goes.
2 suggestions on the parallel path element:
Remember to have her go around the outside of the wing like at the beginning and :38 o she exits the wing on a parallel path to the backside. By sending her around so she exits on the inside of the wing (closer to the tunnel), she had to push away to find it and we don’t quite want to present that challenge yet 🙂Also, have the reward ready in your hand so you don’t have your hand in your pocket – that draws her focus to you and delays the reward. By having it in your hand, you can drop the reward in right away as she gets to the entry wing.
On the 2nd part –
>>I can see I need to lead out & stop before release.
Ideally you stay in motion (slow motion :)) and look at the landing and drop the reward in as you release while moving. That will help solidify the countermotion. She was doing well with the commitment, so now you can gradually add more and more movement past the wing (continuing to drop the reward in nice and early as you look at the landing spot :))
>>She happily tugged before we started & afterward, we ran to the other corner to play.
Super!!!! Great job on all of this!!!
Tracy
Hi!
I am glad she is doing well with her shoulder injury!I think because there was pain associated with the weaves, the best bet is to start from the beginning using a different method – like switch to channels if she originally learned on 2x2s. Then you can work with a SUPER high rate of reinforcement so that will help to rebuild the weaves.
I hear that Karen Holik’s Ninja Weaves on the Clean Run site is really good! Have you checked that out?
T
One thing you can try during NFC/FEO run is making up your own course so that you don’t get too far behind because that is when things come off the rails with baby dogs 🙂 So using the short lead out as she learns the stay, you can start with a small loop so then you are ahead of her again for the next part. That can keep her going in a good flow, even if something goes a little awry 🙂
Hi!
She did well here too! Nice!!!>>Also, I’ve found I need to show her the treat before I toss it away so she can find it quickly.>>
Perfect! It is an easy way to make the food delivery more efficient for her!
>>I take my time putting plank down cuz I don’t want to scare her with it.>>
That is smart! She seemed very comfortable here.
>>I’d like to take this outside with my DW plank on the ground? It actually sits a few inches above the ground, but not much more than the plank today.>>
Yes – the DW plank will also give you more length to work with so she can trot back and forth more. As long as the DW plank is not too high and doesn’t move, it should be perfect!
Great job :)

TracyHi!
>>Thinking too hard about her left and right in the beginning.
Yes, there was a delay of almost 20 seconds between the end of tugging and the bowls going down, and then a few more seconds before the cookies were ready – so that derailed the start a bit. Try to have the cookies ready first, before the upright and bowls go in, so that you can start reinforcement immediately. The second transition after the tugging at about 1:40 was a lot better, with the bowls coming in fast and the reward coming in fast so she got into the rhythm really fast too!! Super!
So next steps here are to get you sitting on something so you are higher off the ground. When you are sitting on something and she is happy with that, you can then start working toward a barrel or large cone.
Nice work!!
TracyOh yay! This went really well – note how she immediately got her back feet on! Yay! That is a combination of the slight adjustments to the set up and from what she learned in the previous session. Super!
You can revisit this here and there, or make a small “field” for her to walk around on if you have several of these.
Tracy
Wow, she did really well at a busy environment! Fun!!!
>>She was only uncomfortable with one thing..the second little girl reached over the top of Mochi to hug her.
Kids move differently, so you can help direct the children to present their open palm to her and not go in a for a hug. That can help keep things very relaxed!
Sounds like she did well with the dogs and people in class too! If she barked when you ran your other dog, that is a frustration sign – so next time, let her relax in a crate far away from the action, so she is not frustrated by arching you run your other dog.
Tracy
Good morning!
The sends are going well!! One thing that was interesting to note was that in both session on the clip, he had an easier time turning to his right and a slightly harder time turning to his left. Your boy is probably a righty! So with that in mind, keep the distance on the sends where he turns left (when he starts on your right side) a little closer for now because they are a little harder. The sends when he starts on your left (and he turns right) can have a little more distance.
One other suggestion is to make a little more eye contact as you send him (and keeping your send arm lower). It sounds counterintuitive but more eye contact actually helps get the dogs to send!
On the drive forward video – he had a little trouble playing with the toy in a new location at first but then he got into it when you tossed it! SUPER!!! Toy play in new locations can be hard and tossing it was smart to try and ended up being a total game changer. He got really into it, so you easily added distance and your motion. YAY!!
The is great to know – the next time you are in a new place that is challenging, start directly with throwing the toy to get him into the game 🙂
And that was an excellent toy (or several toys) 🙂 Definitely high value and easy to throw. You can definitely move to the toy races that were posted in week 2.
Great job!
Tracy
