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Hi!
>> As you can see in the video, he went around the far wing (perhaps distracted or my position was showing a backside). I didn’t fix anything, just continued on as if nothing happened.
This was a great run!! Looking at the blooper – I don’t think it was a handling error. Watching his head, it looked like he was distracted by something on the wall. The electrical boxes? He was definitely looking up at *something*. You were brilliant about continuing and then doing the independent weaves to DW – that looked AMAZING!
All of the pop outs looked great!
Pop out 1
Threadle opening looked GREAT! The a-frame is a big distraction but you were able to get his eyes off of it – you can add a verbal wrap directional as he is approaching 2, which might be stronger than his name in this scenario. And cookies on the chair went well too! He did well with the person sitting on the ground 🙂Pop out 2: These also looked really good! He was not quite as fast or sure of the threadle at 2: You can lead out a little more on these before releasing, so he sees you nearer to 2 and with your threadle arm out sooner to smooth out the threadle to 2.. and it will also help you get past the tunnel sooner too! As soon as he got 2, he was very fast so you had to really hustle to get there.
Pop Out 3: you did a great job navigating through all of the obstacles in your way LOL! It was very aggressive handling and he LOVES LOVES LOVES when you handle like that. He is at his best when you send him and run to your next spot, like you did here. YAY!!!
Pop Out 4:
Also really strong! For the ‘turn” cues, add more rear cross physical cues – pressure on the RC lines, and also because these are tighter rears that needed to be set, you can use your hands to set them up by grabbing his attention with your hands, then flipping him away.Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHoly bananas! Great run! You were hustling but also maintained connection!!!! She was a VERY good girl with her stay, her bars, her lines, etc. Yes, the FC was late and I will try to talk you into doing a BC on those types of lines anyway LOL! I loved your right verbal at the end but the RC cue was a little late (:20) which is why she read it after landing. But overall – a GORGEOUS run and a great example of teamwork!!!! LOVE IT!!!!! How is UKI going today?
T
Hi!
Nice work figuring out how to set these different types of RCs!
One thing to be careful of is ‘pulling’ with your dog side shoulder when she is behind you: that is when you point your dog-side arm forward to the jump and turn your shoulder towards the jump. She spins and barks when you do that (for example at :03 seq A, :51 on Seq B, 4:10 on the bigger sequence), probably because it breaks connection and your upper body and lower body are saying different things. She did much better with less arm pointing forward to cue the line (this is true for her in all cases, not just RCs :)) and with smoother motion.Seq 1:
You drove forward through the RC at :12 nicely, and nailed it at :28, then the rest of the sequence runs went really well.
Nice connection! And nice BC at 5-6 to get to the tunnel 🙂Seq B – When you didn’t point forward to 3… she got the RCs really well here too 🙂 Her only question was at 3-4> The turn on 3 is not really a right verbal, so she was turning right and you had to push her back out. It went much better when you didn’t use the right verbal and told her to jump or go, then it was really easy here and on the later sequences.
To help set her on the big lines, you can use bigger louder GO verbals and also tunnel verbals. You are conversational with the vebrals, meaning a normal tone – and the louder verbals (shouted!) can really propel her away to those lines, which can help you get waaaay ahead for the jump after the tunnel.
Seq C – the wrap RCs looked great at the beginning! In sequence, you needed to keep moving forward to them as you decel like at 3:27, but with connection (not enough at 3:55 and 4:10). If you pointed forward or hit the brakes, she had commitment questions.
Great job putting things together into the bigger sequences! The first big sequence was a little harder – remember to keep moving through al l the cues with your arms low and kind of out of the picture, paired with the big loud go & tunnel cues to get her on the big lines. The 2nd big sequence at the looked great! You were in motion and connected the whole time, so she read it all really well. Yay!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyJumping 2: this went pretty smoothly!!! As with the first course – the bones of the walk through are really good, good plans and good pace! Now, add tons more connection 🙂 try to look for the invisible dog on the exits of all tunnels, when sending, exits of crosses, etc – visualizing the dog will really help prepare the connection for the actual run.
Also – plan more big distance layering to be able to get to the hard spots where handling is required. Layering will allow you to set her on a line and get to those spots pretty easily 🙂 For example, layering the 11-4 tunnel to get to 10 sooner and maybe even a big layer of both th e11-4 tunnel and the 7-23 jump to get ot the 15-16 line (or definitely just the 7-23 jump). and layering the 11-4 tunnel will help you get to 23-24 sooner too!
First run was really good, and so were the other runs! Most of the lines went well, you were a little too far from the threadle wrap at 10 (keep working that skill so you can get closer to the wing and she will still come in for the threadle side rather than take the front)
Then I think the only other hard parts were because you tried to run the lines with her rather than layer, so it was harder to get to the handling spots. For example – any line that you could clearly get to? Went really well! The lines where you got behind (like the BC 15-16, and the ending line 22-23-24) – were because you tried to run the lines with her rather than add the big layers 😉
So this is a good course to isolate the big layering lines, like after the 11 tunnel, send to 12-13 and keep the verbals going and parallel line motion, while you layer the 7-23 jump and do he BC 15-16. When that is going well, you can meet her at the end of the 11 tunnel so you can send to 12-13 etc and layer both the 4-11 tunnel and the 7-23 jump to get to the BC 15-16 🙂 Fun! But also a really hard skill so you will want to work it independently with a ton of thrown rewards.
You can also play with connecting more on the exit of 19, sending to 20/21/etc while you layer the 4-11 tunnel to easily get ahead at 23 🙂 If you can layer that tunnel, you will be waitnig for her at 23 LOL!!Great job here! Let me know what you think about the layering ideas.
Tracy
Good morning!
>>When I was editing, I saw A LOT of connection issues and my arms were often pointing at obstacles and not the dog or her path when a lot of the problems occurred.
Yes, that was the cause of most of her questions, so when you walk the courses: doubly emphasize arms down, BIG connection. Walk (and run) with a water bottle in your hand so you can make biiiiig connection – and know when you break connection because you will feel the water spill LOL!
>>I know some other things were due to holes in our training (like sending ahead and not turning in to bark at me!).>>
Yes, you can train more of this… but it was a connection issue as well (see below).
Walk through looked good – your plan was clear, the walk through had “good bones” meaning the structure was strong! Definitely add more connection and also, look for places you can use layering. These courses are really big, so layering becomes a “must”. Trying to run all the lines with her will willresult in being out of position at some point – but big layering will make it all much easier. If you can’t get the layering while running the whole thing, try to work just pieces of the courses to get the layering skills going and reward the skill.
One other idea, to help keep her frustration level low and minimize spinning/barking: If something comes off the rails – don’t stop and fix in that moment, as that gives her barking fits and it is hard to unstick her, plus we don’t want that barking rehearsal. So if you know how to fix the error on the fly, you can run her back to the previous line without stopping, and connect more or get clsoer to the line, for example. If you aren’t sure what happened, ignore the mistake and you can either keep going as if it didn’t happen and get her on the next line, or throw a reward off of you if you have to stop (to reward the effort but also unstick her and stop the barking :)) And try to go exclusively to thrown rewards rather than any reward directly from you hands. All of this will help her get on and stay on lines as you work up the handling skills.
Lots of smooth lines here, so I will pinpoint a few of the harder spots:
On the opening: Your plan for 1-2-3 was good, but at :53 and 1:23, you needed to drive to 3 more. You were really good at 1:38, that is a great spot to throw a reward.
Blind crossing the openng worked better to show her the line to 3 like at 4:09 and 5:50.
Yes, as you mentioned in the video: to get 5-6-7 you need to leave her in the weaves and also ideally layer the #2 jump. More connection directly to her (less arm pointing) will help her see that 5 jump that she had a lot of trouble seeing. You can add a lot more connection so you don’t rely on the MM as a lure – the physical cue needs to support the verbal, which it did at 3:40 and 4:18 for example and again a 6:03. That was when you had your arm back and more eye contact and more motion to the jump, rather than pointing forward (which turns your shoulders away from the line, especially when your feet are turned away too)
The baackside at 15 is hard for sure! You can definnitely use more connection an dlower arms, but it is a great spot to try layering to get there so it is easier for you to cue her to take it.
Also 4:57 and 5:09 – on the video you asked if her offcourse tunnels were a connection issue? Yes 🙂 you ran through the backside really well rather than staying to help her, but she needed to clearly see your eyes – so she got it nicely when youmade a very direct eye contact so she knew which side to be on.
Nice work! Onwards to course 2!
TracyGood morning!
>>Interestingly, Yuki’s default was to wrap to the left, just as Keiko did. Since I’m using my “Turn” cue, it occurred to me that I don’t think I’ve actually trained their turns on a slanted jump – it’s always been straight on.
I think a couple of things were happening here – the verbals were similar (the go over cue hppening before the trn cue makes the turn away info later), plus at :05 for Yuki the physical cue for the RC on the angled jump happened after commitment to the wrap to the left)
As soon as you started thephysical cues sooner (RC pressure),the turn at 1:12 was MUCH easier for her, and so was the turn at 1:39. I don’t think the position of the jump was what helped her, I htink it was the physical cues coming sooner that helped 🙂
>>. I’m sure my body motion/pressure helped make this clearer to both of them.>>
Yes – when you were putting the RC motion & pressure on the line sooner (right as they were exiting the tunnel), they both got it immediately.
>> I need to work on so it’s smoother all the way around, and so I don’t have to put as much pressure and motion into the turn.
Try using more hand cues and fewer motion cues: I use both hands low and onbvious to the dogs, to get the dogs to focus on my hands and then flip them away. That way I don’t have to use as much motion and can add more distance. It is a little like a tandem turn but with more upper body/hands and less motion.
>>She did barrel past the tunnel for some reason – she keeps me guessing….and on my toes!
She does like to keep you on your toes LOL!!! It is possible that she doesn’t have as much experience with these types of challenges as Keiko does, so at :20 when she couldn’t find the tunnel, perhaps she needs a physial cue to the tunnel – more like what you did at :50.
The rest looked god with both girls! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Cabo looked great here! Your connection was fabulous: Low arms, looking at him, staying in motion, trusting his commitment… all while spitting out the correct verbals. YAY!!!
Same with Fizz! Such great connection and that really helps her commitment 🙂 I think there was only one spot where you didn’t trust her commitment (on the ‘tick tick’ at :07) and you said go go go – but she was committing just fine LOL!
The push commitment at the end for both dogs was fantastic: you got to the backside, gave the verbal… and kept running through the wrap. Note how they both committed perfectly, turning beautifully, while you got miles ahead again. Super!!!
The only thing I might consider adding is a blind cross exit on the jump after the a-frame – as the yare on the frame, you can be moving to the middle of the bar on the backside jump after it to cue the backside. Then, as they are doing the backside, do a blind so they exit on your left. That keeps you a little further ahead. The downside to this, though, (and the upside to what you did which was a rear cross on the tunnel entry) is that after the blind, you would then have to cue the turn on the tunnel with an earlier verbal. The rear cross on the tunnel entry that you did helped get it really nicely, and on this course, you did not end up behind them at all.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyOMG! Naked dog! LOL!!!
She did really well here – she was thinking SO HARD but set herself up really well for the turns!
>> I have a lefty!
There were more right turn reps than left turn reps, so it is hard to tell here but that left turn rep did look easier than the right turn reps, where she was shaping her own line (on the left turn, she drove right into it).
You can add more contrast between the decel and the acceleration by using a bigger acceleration on the Go lines. At :59, for example, you were decelerated so she was not sure if she should collect or not. That caused her question at 1:06 -you were decelerated then turned, so she was not sure if she should commit or not. So feel free to accelerate more if you want a her to take both jumps in extension, or accelerate then transition into deceleration for the wrap.
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
>>My walk through could have had more umph – better energy and more specificity – I think. >>
I think your walk through looked really good! You had more verbal excitement in the runs (see below) but the walk through here was strong. I can tell that you are working to visualize an actual dog, because I think I heard you praising her during the walk through when she exited the tunnel 🙂 My only suggestion is a handling choice: turn her to her right over 4 so she lands facing 5 (and that is a better line to 6 as well). Wrapping her to the left at 4 makes the send to 5 harder for you both.
>>Keiko was really into playing for a bit first, then the mail person came up the driveway (you’ll notice in the second run Keiko was checking out the driveway to see what was going on.) Though slightly distracted, she stuck with me, which was great.>>
I noticed that she was not totally ‘into’ running the sequemce, so yo uwere using more verbal energy duing the 2 runs to pump her up. Heat? Mail person? Not enough room to run? Not sure, but she was a little subdued so the extra verbal energy helped. You can plan that im the walk through, because you often do use praise and high energy ‘woohoo!’s during the run 🙂
Both runs were good! Because she was not as fast as usual, you were using more of that verbal energy but you generally stayed really connected and executed your plan really well 🙂
>>The first run here was going fine until I disconnected as she went over #8. Eek! Never lose sight of your dog! She saved me – they do that for us sometimes, don’t they
Yes, when they learn more about the game, they begin to save us 🙂 That is why we reward them so often! You had a that little disconnection at :48 after 8 – you reconnected and she fixed her line, good girl! You were much clearer with the connection at 1:27, and she nailed it: no problem getting past the tunnel to 9 on either run. YAY!!
>> summer camp is drawing to a close. What do you have coming up on the horizon? Hope there’s something Keiko and I can join.>>
Yes! Now that my insane August is finished, I can plan some stuff 🙂 I am thinking of a series of short hndling classes for the younger dogs like Keiko: we begin with a live Zoom seminar, then everyone has 2 weeks to do the skills and sequences from the seminar and also some bonus sequences. People can take as many or as few as they like 🙂 Let me know if that sounds like fun!
Great job here 🙂
TracyYep, 1 year old, complete adolescent brain.
>>She isn’t a fan of chasing long toys- I know sounds weird but she’s more an upright girl-
Not weird at all, she is bred to point not chase, so it makes sense that she doesn’t find the prey drive of chasing a toy as stimulating as the ‘birdiness’ of balls and frizzers.
So just play some frizzer in the training building, play some ball, etc. You will be able to add in silly tricks for the friz, etc. Her brain will un-blip soon then it will be back to training. The more I learn about adolescent dog brains, the less I train during adolescence LOL!!!
T
Hi! Both dogs looked great here!
>>She got up from her sit
A little pushy on the start line is a good thing LOL!
Nice opening on these!The GO after the RC on jump 4 was a little too much at :12, she is literal and she was GOING for sure LOL! The jump verbal at :29 was just right, perfect amount of turn to the line.
>>She came inside the jump to the tunnel really well and then came right with me past it when I thought she had it and started moving on.
She was probably not as familiar with the backside tunnel in that context, so went past it with the softer connection at :17. You gave her stronger connection at :34 and she was great!
It would be interesting to see the difference in time on the 7-8-9 with the backside slice line that you did here, versus wrapping the inside wing (the one closer to the tunnel). The wrap has more turning, but far less distance. She is a great turning dog so it might end up being faster! You executed the backside slice really well here, so if you are in the mood to set it up again, do the slice versus the wrap on jump 8 and we will compare 🙂
Nice job with the balance of jump to tunnel and jump to go go go at the end, it was very cool to see her do both, and great to know which cues she needs!
Kaladin’s video:
That was pretty hilarious when Kaladin took off for the weaves, then a couple of seconds later re-appeared and continued the sequence LOL! At least you know he remembered the weave training you had been doing LOL!At 1:03 when he took the jump not the tunnel, he probably needed a name call or a right verbal as he was approaching 5.You did call him after the initial off course, but it was after he landed from 5 so he applied it to the off course jump.
At 1:47 you said your first go as he was approaching 5 (in the balance rep) so that is the timing to try with the turn verbals. At 2:00, you called him as he was over the bar and that totally helped – he landed then turned his head. So either a little earlier with the name (right before he lifts off) or try it with a right verbal as he is approaching 5, so he can adjust and turn right enough to find the backside tunnel entry and not the off course jump.
The rest looked great! He was especially tight and fast on the exit of the backside, wowza!!!!!!
Great job!!! Hope you are enjoying your weekend!
TracyHi!
>>What is the deadline to submit videos for this class? I have like six I need to get to you.
September 15th!
>>What are your thoughts on allowing her to come into the Ring and give her a moment to literally just sniff and assess the environment and then when I see her engage back to me initiate tug? I did do that once and it seem to work but there was a good minute to a minute and a half of her either sniffing or just running in circles while I had the leash attached. after I got it she was super happy to tug and I did not realize she still felt that was hard because when I did my tunnel with the toy she checked out when I gave her the bite cue for her toy.
It is pretty normal to lose tug for a while then it comes back, so we definitely do not want to pressure her to tug. With that in mind, I would want lower latency in familiar environments when you let her sniff & assess before asking to engage (meaning: 90 seconds in a familiar environment is a looooong time, I would prefer 10 seconds or less).
How old is she now? She is squarely in adolescence where we see things like this, so the goal is to create engagement without pressure. You can try bringing her in to the familiar environment and have her chase toys, like chase a frisbee or a favorite tug on a line that you whip around for her to chase. The goal would not be a training session, the goal would be more to see what she will play with or chase. That way you know what your actual reinforcement for any training will be:
>>after I got it she was super happy to tug and I did not realize she still felt that was hard because when I did my tunnel with the toy she checked out when I gave her the bite cue for her toy.>>
So in the moment, the bite cue and toy presentation was not a reinforcement (for whatever reason). Just have her chase a dragged or thrown toy without any attempts to train behavior, to shift some of the conditioned response to the training environment. Right now the conditioned response is either cookies or environmental assessment (particularly if cookies are not in the picture). So, try to shift the environment to condition it with ball play, or frisbee throws, or whatever silly toy stuff she might like without any attempts to train a behavior (and if your next question is “then what should I train?” or “should I train with food?” 🙂 the answer is don’t train anything for a bit, with or without food :)) Take a brain break! Just throw some toys around to conditioned the environment differently, and build them up as potential reinforcement.
>>add in her obedience classes where we are using food so food has become the priority.
That conditions the training environment to be food food food. If possible, take a break there too because it is doing you no favors in terms of being able to balance food and toys as reinforcement. that will shift the conditioned response wildly in favor of food. So, take a break from foodie training, throw around toys, turn off the pressure, let her adolescent brain re-wire a bit, ten go back to it when she is happy to engage with toys as play, separately from training. I have found that taking breaks with adolescent dogs results in far better progress and far less banging my head on the wall LOL!
Let me know what you think!
TracyI love this video! You two looked AMAZING – I peeked at a lot of his runs in the other rings when I could, LOL!!! So much skill and teamwork and connection. And you had so much good dog training happening with the toys, treats, connection, etc, it was so fun to watch!!!! Get some well-deserved rest, then onwards to more fun – the future looks so bright!
T
Hi!
>>>>>As you were driving up the line, your motion was showing a parallel path line to the backside and she got it.
So once again, she was reading something that I didn’t even know I was doing, lol. I am definitely pleased with how good her backsides have gotten. I just need to make sure I don’t cue them on accident now!>>
Ha! Yes, her backsides have improved enormously and she will let you know when you drive hre to them by accident LOL!
>>> when she barked at you, you were kinda looking at her but your arm was forward so she didn’t really see the connection. Keep your arm low and back, so she can see your eyes and shoulders.
>>I know you’ve said this to me a million times this summer! I’m working really hard on this, but I’ve been doing it wrong for a very long time and it’s been hard to change. Thank you for the reminders!! I have caught myself on several occasions with my arm forward when she’s something I didn’t want or expect, so at least I’m starting to recognize it some of the time. 🙂>>>No worries – we all have to remember this part of the mechanics and it is HARD!!! Your connection is looking SO GOOD overall!
>> I always try to avoid luring (it was so taboo for a long time…), but I am now seeing the value of using luring in the beginning stages to build confidence and drive away from me and then fading it out later.>>
Yes, luring had a bad rep for a long time, for no real reason LOL!! Throwing the toy sooner is not actually luring, it is splitting the behavior into smaller pieces an rewarding sooner, to build up the behavior. But having the toy thrown or placed in advance to help easily create the behavior? Also perfectly fine! And then we fade it 🙂
T
