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Pre-Game 2:
I was very happy with his ability to keep tugging while I got the food and target out! And then go back to tugging after all the cookies! Fast transitions are hard 🙂
Like in the other game, he does better with shaping when I reward with the cookie away from the ‘thing’ so there is some action.
It is important to have the cookie ready. It is also important that I am looking at the target in my hand.
Ramen’s Pre-Game 1: Shaping Value
Big chewy chunks of food – took him a while to get started because of all the chewing 🙂
This puppy does better with shaping when I toss rewards away with his ‘get it’ marker, rather than reward “at the source” where he remains in position. Maybe it has something to do with a whippet’s natural love of moving? Every puppy will be different in this respect.
I can also break off and tug more frequently, he lost his chain of thought in the middle but then came back strong!
Hi! Hope you are having a good weekend! He did really well with these sequences!
He is very responsive to the line you are on, which is good news and also bad news LOL!
On the first sequence, you were on the line to the tunnel at :03 so he took the tunnel hen you wanted the jump. When you moved your line over at :09, :22 and :35, he was perfect about going to the jump. Yay! You can add decel as you are finishing the blind to tighten the turn. He was a little wide on the turn because you were sending him past you to the jump – but since you were already close to the jump, and since he is super happy to go past you… he went past you a lot 🙂 So as you finish the blind, you can decel and NOT keep moving forward to the jump. And before he passes you, give a soft cue to take the jump (low hand, maybe 2 hands as a “brake” and I bet he gives you a great turn there.
He did well with the threadle wrap too:
On the first one at :44, you had a lot of acceleration and the threadle arms over the bar, so he was surprised and dropped the bar. The next reps were really good! You can decel more into those too: since he is so good about driving forward, you really only need to get one step past the 2nd jump, so you can be decelerating and doing the threadle as a send.And the tunnel rep was great 🙂
When you built it all Ito the bigger sequence:
Your first BC to the tunnel t 1:28 was a little late but the blind at 1:39 was great (position and timing) and so were all of the rest! Super!
He has strong sends and this is a pretty intuitive backside line, so the 5-6-7 line went better when you trusted him more and left sooner. You stayed at the backside a little too long at 1:45 (you were there as he was approaching takeoff) so it was harder to get the line on that rep and the next rep at 2:02.
You left a lot sooner at 2:19 and you were great about trusting the send and leaving early at 2:33 and that also set up a good left on the jump to get him into the tunnel. Yay!
So definitely trust your sends – your connection looked lovely on the send after the tunnel, so watch his head: when he is looking at and moving towards the backside approach wing, you can leave like you did at 2:33.
2nd sequence – this was all about the line too 🙂 Your BCs to the jump at 2:45, 3:04 and 3:30 were all really good timing and your connection was good! So why did he jump so long as if heading to the tunnel? Your line was towards the tunnel as you were doing the blind, so the first cues he saw were extension to the tunnel. Compare the BC positions and line you ran to the position/line you ran at 3:17 when you wanted the tunnel – they were virtually the same.
So to get a tight turn 3-4, you will not want to go past the plane of the wing of 3 and always head to 4. Since it is a tight spacing there (which is common on these discriminations) you might find that the FC shows the correct line to the jump better than the blind cross, because it turns your feet to the line sooner. But definitely keep the timing and connection – that was great!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyWow Amy, this was a great session, she is showing some awesome skills and speed!!
I loved loved loved what you did on the backside slice moment from :05 – :08. Positionally, you were in a great spot for the send. Connection? Perfect! You also maintained connection and did not rush the baby dog as you moved through to the blind exit. Fabulous! As she gets even more experienced, you will be able to leave sooner but this was quite perfect.
2nd rep was the wrap:
Gorgeous position for the wrap at :17, great patience, she is an amazing turner 🙂
Great job leaving the wrap position as soon as she was past you, her commitment looked great and her turn was lovely.
My only suggestion is to call her between 3 and 4 to tighten the line to the 5 backside wrap so she comes into it with less yardage.Blind to threadle slice – also really strong! You had super good timing of the blind. You can give her a little more room coming into the threadle – stay maybe one or two more steps away from the wing to set up her jumping. And stay chill and quiet til after she lands from the threadle – you got really exciting and she got distracted from the difficult jumping effort 🙂
Really fabulous session! You and Dora look great. And your connection is AMAZING which really helps support her.
Tracy
Hi!
>>My main takeaway was ‘stay off their line”. >>
Yes! Handler line is critical on these discriminations, as you saw. On the blind crosses, for example:
At :02, your line was too far across the bar at 2 so she correctly took the other side of 3. Compare that to the blind at :19, where you were on a great line and she was perfect. For binds (and fronts), ideally you start them on the exact line you want her to be on… then get out of the way before she arrives there 🙂>>There was about 6 feet between the jump and the parallel tunnel
Yes, this is the new normal in course designs 🙂
>>and most of them took the backside of the jump (although my feet may also have had something to do with that).>>
Yes – when she pushed to the other side of the jump on the threadles, your feet at :06 and :09 pushed her off the line. Your line was much better at :11 and she read it really well.
>>kind of like the throwback option (assuming it is an option). I can see we would really struggle with something like this if she had some speed on in the middle of a course so we will practise this useful exercise!>
At :15, you did the throwback/lap turn which worked really well – as you noted, because the lap turn requires so much rotation and you have to basically be stopped in position and facing her, it is only useful when you can easily get there. The threadle wrap will work really well in the flow of the course when you cannot get to the lap turn.
>>I am also curious why do a blind there?
The blind or front can work there. The blind is quicker for us humans, so we can decel for the send better. The FC is harder and often we step forward out of the FC which cues extension to the next jump – so it is counterintuitive but the blind can set up the tighter turn on the next jump by allowing us to decel sooner.
>>You lose sight of them for a crucial second >>
Ideally, we are finished with the blind before the dog takes off for 2.
>>and also, does a blind not cue extension when ideally we want a tight wrap with collection at the jump?
Blinds can also cue tight turns, but mainly in this case the quickness of the blind allows us to decelerate better into the tight turn on the next jump.
>> and may also help cue the tunnel? I
The BC and the FC can also cue the tunnel if we are on the wrong line 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Sorry to hear it has been a tough couple of weeks and I hope the covid vaccine is not hitting you too hard!! But glad to hear you enjoyed Lori’s seminar 🙂 I will keep an eye out for her seminars for sure!Arram did really well on all of these. He is young, obviously LOL so he has some questions plus you are still sorting out his timing needs. Some ideas for you:
Video 1 – On these lead outs, try to line him up facing the jump before the first send, take a moment, then send. If he is looking at you and you suddenly start, he was taking the jump but not sure where to go – for example :18 he was moving but looking around, not sure where to be on the jump. He can definitely handle more slice angles, so you can gently hold his collar for a moment while he is facing it to let him look at it for a moment.
When you had him on the slice jumping towards the course at 1:12, he did beautifully and read that challenging rear cross – really nice! So that angle plus a lead out will help get the wrap to the left there too, so you can decel and rotate your feet to cue the wrap.
2nd video: I think he is ready for more of a slice angle on jump 1 on these too! Really nice job on the backsides, both the push wrap and threadle wrap. Depending on how his stay is going, you and add more distance on your lead outs on these slice openings too.
Video 3 – he is doing well with the backside stuff too!
He is ready for more trust, in terms of positional cues and not over-helping the backsides 🙂 For the push wraps, you can use more connection (dog side arm back, eyes on his eyes), and run to where the wing meets the bar but don’t block the wing. The first rep was good position but not quite enough connection, and the 2nd and 3rd reps wing more connection there but you were wing blocking (putting yourself on his line past the wing) so he wasn’t really sure where to be and you had to rotate to get it. So blend the position of the first rep with the connection of reps 2 and 3, and you will be perfect!
Threadle wrap – when you gave big obvious arms and went forward with connection? He was super! So definitely don’t rush this move (this is a slow motion move, even for experienced dogs). When coming in from the blind, you can decel, use big arms & connection, and move straight forward. Moving towards the jump was pushing him to the front of it, and if you were moving too fast he didn’t get organized to do it. So that decel and moving straight with big arms cues will help, no need to move away until after he has turned his head and is moving towards the jump. My favorite rep was at 1:42, nice and patient and connected! You can fade out the foot rotation too: see if you can keep your feet moving forward as your upper body, position and verbal cue the wrap. Turning your feet to the jump looks similar to the threadle slice, so feet facing forward will help keep the threadle wrap very distinct.
2:09 was also good, but you were rushing a bit for the next reps. 3:44 was also really patient and clear – the next sep is to definitely fade out the foot rotation.
Backside slices – I think you can trust him more on these too 🙂 You can be moving on a parallel line to his path, more towards the center of the bar, so you don’t end up showing wrap position and so you don’t end up in his landing spot.
At 4:42 and 5:12 for example you got past the entry wing so he went to the backside but then you were in the way so he didn’t take the jump. He took is nicely when you sent from further away at the very end, so definitely trust him more so as he gets to the backside of the jump, you are out of the way and he will take the jump 🙂
Video 4
Nice blind to the tunnel! REALLY nice timing and position at 1:52! He is doing really well reading the discriminations.Nice backside after the tunnel – it is another good trust moment (so hard to trust the baby dogs!) so you can end to the backside then get outta there… otherwise you set the line to 3 (which he was looking at).
You left earlier on the 2nd and 3rd rep and it helped him drive the line really nicely!
He had trouble turning away whatever distraction is past the weaves so didn’t quite get into the tunnel. Also, it is possible that he doesn’t fully understand the backside tunnel entry so you got some avoidance behaviors: leaving, sniffing, running on top of the tunnel LOL – that’s a good skill to isolate by starting where he can see it and working around the clock so you can get him to send without you needing to be close to it.5th video: He did well here too! It is fun to see the pieces coming together 🙂
16″ was a little high for the parts that required thinking right now, he was slowing down a bit, so you can probably leave the hard bars lower (like 2-3-4) and have the easier bars at 16″.
The FC 3-4 worked nicely! On the first rep, your position was really good (where the wing and bar met, right on his line) and a nice early rotation so he turned really well and never considered the tunnel.On the 2nd FC at :53, you were a little further past the position by a step by also you showed more acceleration and a later FC, and he was wider there. He was not scoping the tunnel, but he was responding to the cues he saw on the way to 2. Good boy!
After the FC on both reps, as soon as he lands, remember to decel so he turns before takeoff to the jump and not after landing to pick up the next line.
Great job here! He is really putting big pieces together. And I am glad Lanna smoked all of them 🙂 Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I audited the recent Got FACE class with Bobbie Bhambree.
I think some of those exercises have helped with her overall experiences too. yay!>>That is super! I was really impressed with her resilience after the crash. She was like, “no problem, let’s get back at it.” Good girl!
>>How long are we able to post video for feedback in this class. I missed seeing that.
We are going to keep this open until Thanksgiving, so folks can get everything done 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Yes, the US Open is very exciting and the hurricane added plenty of spice! We are back to normal weather now, thankfully.
This session went well, these are hard skills!
A couple of ideas for you:
– I think you should have separate verbals for the threadle slice and the threadle wrap 🙂 You can hate me now LOL!! It sounded like you were using the same for both but then adding left left for the wrap… but that makes things late and she is speedy 🙂 When she lands from jump 2, you can already be telling her if it is a slice or a wrap if you have 2 different verbals. But if it is the same verbal, you can’t really tell her til she is on the takeoff side and you also have to add lots of handling (which is why it was hard to get the last jump at the very end at 4:24, too much time spent handling the wrap). So definitely consider using the here cue for the slices and something entirely different for the wraps (I say “in in” for my threadle wraps). They are very different behaviors, so the different verbals will help her.Doing the blind to set up the threadles definitely go you into position sooner. Just be sure that you keep moving forward until she can get o the threadle side and show her the arm cues. At 2:17 and the rep after it, you did the BC by pushed her to the front side. On the rep at 2:37 and after that, you gave her more room and showed her the threadle arm, and she got it nicely. YAY!!
The Push wraps looked great !!! On this sequence, you don’t need to go as close to 2 – you can send her to it and leave, so you can show the line to where the wing meets the bar to set up the backside wraps.
You’re going to hate me again… with her speed, I think you need 2 separate verbals for backside push wrap and backside push slice 🙂 I use “back” for the backside slices and “dig” for the backside wraps (repeated like you were repeating them). Like the threadles, they are VERY different behaviors so different verbals tell her a lot sooner what to do. She is very fast, to having the extra verbals will really help 🙂
>>Fritzi had her first crash on a jump, I left it in the video, let me know if you see something I did to cause it. I noticed she rubbed the jump before the crash too so maybe just testing proximity to the wings>>
Yikes, that was a big crash! She is very resilient, good girl!!
I watched it several times in slow motion – I think your handling is what the grown up version of the handling will be. But, she is young and had trouble processing all of the speed and cues (starting with rubbing the wing on jump 2). So as you ran through to the takeoff side she got disorganized and had the crash. So, considering we eventually want you to handle like that: do everything the same but don’t move as fast, so she can process the cues while seeing less speed and less countermotion. That way she can think about the jumping organization. This is similar to what you did at 4:00 and the rep after it, and it really helped set her up for success. As she gets more experienced, you will be able to add back more and more of your speed. And having the separate verbals will help too, because she will be getting info sooner.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Yes, she was very happy to do the distance work 🙂 She looked super! I think if we clarify the verbals and use them sooner then it will be even easier.>>Are there cues for turn left or right out of the tunnel or do they just rely on body language and “out” – I notice she looks at me, particularly for the turn -aways.>>
You were using go for the distance jump at the very beginning, which was appropriate: Go should mean stay on your line in extension. In the 2nd half of the session, you were using out and go somewhat interchangeably – towards and away – so I think you should save Go for the line straight/parallel to you and use out for the turn aways after the tunnel exit. Left and right will create turns that are generally too tight.
The next thing to add is saying the cues (go and out, depending on which direction it is) before she goes in the tunnel – so when she is maybe a meter before the tunnel, start you go or your out cue, and repeat it so she hears it before, during, and after the tunnel 🙂 so she doesn’t rely on body language (but of course you should still use your physical cues too to support the verbals :))
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Great job with this session, in terms of progressing from stationary to movement and adding the wing – all good! You were also really good about emphasizing getting the treats in the bowl, so her head position was good over the bar.I noticed she was a little less snappy than usual, so the heat and bugs might have been an issue plus she might have been thinking very hard about going past the food dish 🙂 and organizing while facing you. So let the learning sink in for a day – then try it again and if she is faster with the sits, you can add more motion! Yay!
And after adding more motion, we will start fading the organizers. Fun times ahead!!!!
Tracy
Hi! Hope you are having a great vacation!
This was a really good session with 2 big takeaways:
– she is getting more powerful and centering herself really well over the jumps. She is no longer landing as short to the jumps and getting closer to a centered arc. Super!
– she has trouble organizing with power for bar 1 with the moving target, so we can isolate that for her! The other bar on jump 1 was at :06 and I think she was too close to the bar in her setup position (looks like she hit it on when she lifted her front feet up).Two ways to proceed:
– with the stationary target, flatten then angles by another inch or so 🙂– let’s isolate the takeoff on the moving target. There are two ways to do this. We can set her up close to just one jump, start dragging the target, then release. If she doesn’t touch the bar: BIG PARTY! If she does touch the bar, give her a low value treat like a cheerio 🙂 You can start with the bar really low to get success then built it up – when she can do it at 12 or 14 inches on one jump, we can add the moving target back to the zig zag grid. The other option is to use your plank: as you and Mo are moving to the plank, you can be dragging the target. Ask her to sit on the plank while the target is moving. That might be challenging! But it will get her thinking about her hind end 🙂
Great job here!!! Have fun!
TracyHi!
>>I only did one direction because I was really just trying to NOT be so exciting on release… failed several times
Ha! You were really good!!
Wing to board:
He was totally on fire! When starting with the wing, he probably needed you to be standing in position near the jump like you did at 1:10 and sending to the wing, so you can be right there and not moving much to cue the sit, to get things rolling. When he did remember the game after the rep at 1:10 he was just about perfect! Then you were able to add more motion, with the reps at 2:01 and after that all looking really good. So on the next session, you can start the way you started at 1:10, then add more motion as he gets warmed up. If things go as well astray did here, you can move to the backside slices in the session after that.His form on the zig zags looked good and also was consistent, which means he is feeling very comfy with it. He is also using his hind end better, and not rotating it. He was hilarious when you were done but he did one more LOL!! Since this went well, on the next session, start with the angle you used here for a warm up rep or two, then tighten it more. If he is fine with that: in the following session, open up the angle a bit and do the backsides 🙂
>>Not quite sure why that MM isn’t pulling his vision as much as I would expect! There seems to still be a fair amount of looking at me both on zig zag and the organization video above.
I think on the zig zags, you can click the MM sooner, as soon as you see his back feet hit the ground between 1 and 2. That will both mark the moment of organization and be nice & early so he doesn’t look at you.
I think with the organizers, he will look at you as a way to get into the sit (looking at the MM too much ended up with no sits LOL!). When we get to the fading, he will be looking forward more.Great job! Let me know how the next sessions go!
TracyHi!
This was definitely a harder session for him! And that is fine, it is a really hard grid when it gets this flat. He was having some trouble sorting out how to do this independently, especially when he was on your right and had to shift away from you to get jump 1. For the next session, if he is on your right, have him on the other side of jump 2 so he is jumping to his left (towards you over 1) rather than to his right away from you over 1. And same if he is one your left: let him jump to his right over the first jump (towards you) rather than away from you to his right.When you added handling, it definitely helped him out but it was still hard work with some added between jumps 2 and 3. So, on the next session, we can help him out by opening things up by maybe 1 inch between 1 and 2, and 2 inches between 2 and 3 so it is slightly less flat and he can do it more independently. You can Lead out and place the toy so he figures it out without you.
If he still thinks it is really hard, you can back chain it and start him in the middle, next to jump 2, where he would land from 1 and ask for jumps 2 and 3 only (with you at the end with the reward on the ground). If that goes well, you can start him at 1 and try for all 3 – I think he can do all that in 1 session.>>Looks to me like the slip in the last video was due to him jumping while he was turning – following reps, he finished the turn and then loaded up to jump>>
Yes – he was going fast and didn’t quite get his hind end set up on that first rep. I was glad to see him make better decisions after that!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
It was a little hard to see from the angle, but I think he added a stride in between the bars on most reps (it looks like he had really nice bounces at 4:10, 5:14 and 6:04). Looking back to the previous session where he was bouncing more, we can try to replicate the distance between the bars to get the bouncing going again. I couldn’t quite tell here wha the distance was, but it is also possible that you can get the bounce form if you can be more on the line where the 2 wings meet, rather than on the line to the outer wing which presents a longer distance. He might not be able to fully see you between the uprights, but that is fine 🙂He definitely liked the ball! And the toy and the ball both kept his head down, but I think because the type and placement was changing throughout the session, he was thinking more about where to look and where to go, so he was not thinking as much about the hind end form – that could be the other reason he was adding strides. So you can use the ball, but have it placed on the ground before you release him into the normal zig zags, or if you are doing backsides: hold his collar while you toss the ball to position, then send him to the backside to start the grid after the ball has fully landing and stopped rolling 🙂 Making the reinforcement ultra predictable will allow him to focus more on the form and less on where the toy might be. Let me know if that makes sense!
Nice work here! Fingers crossed you don’t get a ton of rain!
TracyHi!
Well, there was no staying dry today but I think the rain is mostly stopped. Now it is just wind wind wind. Fingers crossed it ends SOON!
He is looking SNAPPY on those tight sits – note how he is tucking his hind end under him. I bet he has abs of steel right now!
I like how the MM is helping him to be straight and NOT turn his head up to you. Sure, there is a little bit of momma-looking but not too much, and your timing with the MM was really strong! Only one sorta-sit got clicked LOL!
Onwards to the bar! My only suggestion for when adding the bar is to move the MM around the wing a little more, so he can jump, land, and take one more stride to the MM.
Great job here!! Let me know how he does with the bar!
Tracy
