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Good morning!
It was very fun to see Rusty understand this as if he had already read the textbook and worked on it without you LOL!! Super great job! He was fast and most of all – he understood to finish the wrap with you moving forward. That is the part that young dogs often have questions about and I didn’t see Rusty have questions. SUPER!!!
Since this went brilliantly, you can add a little more challenge to it:
Start a little further back so he has 4 or 5 strides to get to the barrel. You can also be a little further to the side, so he can fully see the barrel. When you start moving forward, be sure he can still see the barrel so he can accelerate past you. As he gets past you and starts the wrap, you will get on the line right behind his tail and keep moving forward.
This adds a harder countermotion element! But I think he is ready 🙂 If he needs extra support to finish the wrap, you can look behind you as you walk forward.
I also suggest moving over so he can see the barrel fully because we don’t want to block the line on course. We want him to go past you to get to it, but not have to cross in front of you to get to it. That will actually keep you being able to move even more as he learns his commitment skills.
The other thing to add now is the backside circle wrap verbal! It needs to be different from the regular backside verbal because it needs to cue a lot more collection and we don’t want you to have to use extra handing to help that.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>I am trying very hard to keep things clear for him but have some work to do on my handling. He is a sensitive one at times. >
As we work on handling with baby dogs, the main thing is to reward basically all the things LOL!! The hardest part of agility is that the dogs have to rely on us for all the info on course – sorry, dogs hahahahaha. Our adult dogs know the game well enough that they can figure it out if we are unclear. But the baby dogs do not, so we just make sure to reward a zillion things. And I have a game coming soon to teach the pups to have fun even when we humans mess us LOL! 😂
>He seems to get the stay but then I see him yawning. >
Adding lots of rewards and mixing in non-stay starts will help! And more tugging now that your hand is on the way to recovery.
>I had tried it both ways the day before and he was still going to the toy. I think because it was the 1st time we had played tug since my surgery it was just too hard for him also >
He does love the toy! Your plan to place it and then reward him a lot on the way to the start spot will help! And we can also start with easier things to reward, such as an empty bowl or even a slightly-open back of treats. Those will be a good challenge but not as hard as the toy 🙂
>I agree on the wow for the wobble board. We have taken it very slow like you suggested.>
We have time on our side as far as teeter training goes. So keep taking the slow, high value approach you’ve been doing because the results are fabulous!!!
>For the backsides. I have only one verbal now. I mainly do AKC. My in person instructor told me I do need the two verbals for backsides. >
Yes – AKC has evolved a lot in the pat couple of years in terms of using both types of backsides. So I think you need a backside slice verbal (I think your ‘around’ will work for this). And a backside circle wrap verbal (I use dig dig dig dig because I can chop it up for added collection support). “Back back back” is also a good choppy word for the backside wraps, and a nice contrast to ‘around’.
>To be honest I am a little confused when I would use each also. >
There are ‘grey’ areas on backsides to define exactly which verbal should be used, so it depends on the amount of collection (because I absolutely do not want more than 2 verbals for backside pushes haha!)
I base it off the exit wing and it is all about the dog’s path, not my handling (although these are both backside pushes and not threadles):
if the dog has to enter on one wing and exit towards the other wing – it is the slice verbal. If the dog has to enter on one wing and exit tight to that same wing? It is the wrap verbal 🙂
Visuals work best for this:
Here is the circle wrap. -the dig dig dig is very quiet.
Here are some slices (there is a bit of training at the beginning but you can see the full slice at about :45 seconds:
>I am probably overthinking it which is one of my faults lol.>
You are not overthinking! And planning/clarifying is NOT a fault at all!!! Dublin appreciates it! Let me know if the backside stuff makes sense 🙂
On the video:
He was SO HAPPY the toy was back! Yay!And he is tall now so you don’t have to lean over as much LOL!
These wraps around the cone are full 360s, so that would be the backside wrap verbal (eventually, it is not needed here).
He did a super job driving around the cone to the dragged toy – really nice body bending and turns!
Since he did so well here, we can isolate his head turn even more: you can line him up at your side, send him around the cone, As he is coming around the cone, the same hand that sent him will now meet his nose (you can have a cookie in the hand) and draw his nose past the cone, then slowly turn him away to get to wrap for a 2nd time. The instance he turns his head to start the 2nd wrap, you can mark (click or verbal marker) and toss the treat around the cone.
This is a more cerebral version of it so you don’t need to move, you can just hang out in front of the cone. And he only needs to do 2 wraps in a row to get the reward – then you can tug and line him up for a the next rep.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Really nice sessions here – and a good balance between the very thoughtful pivoting and the run run run backsides 🙂 She did super!
Pivoting is going well! You are getting some definite steps in each direction! I think it is a little harder when you were moving your right side towards her – that was where there were fewer steps and she would sometimes jump up to the cookie hand. The other side seemed easier – so when you are moving your left side towards her, you can ask for more steps. When you are moving your right side towards her, keep rewarding just a step or two for now.
She was also offering pivoting when she got back on the barrel – you can get more steps there by delivering the food with her head slightly more turned. For example at :15, you rewarded by delivering the treat with her head a little turned to her right. You can turned it a little more towards her shoulder – it is a fine line because we want more steps but we don’t want her to fall off the bucket LOL!! You can experiment with how much to turn her head for the cookie to see what works best.
The backside slices are also looking strong. She seemed to really understand the concept of finding the ‘other’ side of the barrel and coming back over the bar. The toy really made it fun for her 🙂
She had a couple of questions on your left (at 2:55 approx) but I think that was her locking onto a cookie in your hand perhaps. You got rid of the cookie and the questions disappeared 🙂
As you add more distance away from the barrel, you can actually use your arm less (and connect more). You had a little bit of pointing ahead on your right side, which might be too much arm when we add it to a jump – too much arm blocks the connection and turns our shoulders to the front of the jump. But your left arm position was great: supporting but not pointing and she saw the connection. So she got the backside with you pretty far away by the end. YAY!
Excellent job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
She gave good feedback on this one!! It was fun to see what she needed to read the cues.
The visual of the full jump has a lot of value, and when you were moving into the tandem turns you were facing the jump so she was not necessarily incorrect – it looked like a rotated send so she went to the jump.
Compare to the reps where she got it – at :16, your feet were facing forward and kind of pulling away, that worked great to show her the line. And also at 1:02 – you were moving forward more so your feet never turned to the jump and she totally understood that it was the threadle side, not the front.
So to get it more reliably, you can move along a parallel path to the path you want her to take, even pulling away from the jump a little. And keep your hands as visible as they were here, that was great!
Let me know if that makes sense 🙂 Overall it was a really helpful session!
Tracy
Hi!
The flatwork looked great – excellent attention to the connection after the blinds. The single blinds looked super easy, The doubles are harder, of course, but he got them really well thanks to your connection!! You can add more running on the flatwork: it challenges you to make connection at a higher rate of speed (he will read it really well if you do).
Everything was pretty perfect until the very last blind on the last rep (1:07) – the toy was not in the correct hand so you didnt get the connection. He did lock onto the toy and leapt for it, but I think you saw your life flash before your eyes there LOL!! Firi has no regrets haha but it is a good reminder to always get the connection even if the toy is in the wrong hand 🙂
The wing work went well too. Singles are easy, those looked great! When you added doubles – you can do the first one just as his nose exits the wing, so you will then have more time to do the 2nd one.
One suggestion as we start adding more speed and sequences: keep your hands in tighter. You don’t need to support lines with your arm extended from your shoulder – and that arm out will delay the quickness needed for the blinds. You can keep your arms in tight to you, in a running position, and you will see that you can make those connections happen really quickly without having to run faster.
Great job here! Onwards to the 2 wing game and if that is comfy – try the one jump games.
Tracy
Hi!
Threadle wraps are hard! I think there were a couple of things happening that caused him to ask some questions here –
On the first side (when he was on your right and turning to his right), on the first couple of reps you needed a bit more decel and slower hands, and he might have been expected the toy to be thrown forward because there was a lot of forward motion.
But your hands were nice and low, and pretty visible as he exited the tunnel. At :58, you had all the pieces: decel, low hands for him to see, and you turned him away slowly: nailed it! The reward placement there (tossing it back to his line around the wing) was spot on too. Same with the rep at 1:03 – super nice decel, visible hands, slow turn away, and reward placement.
On the other side:
The camea angle when he was on your left was good – we can’t really see your hands which means he couldn’t see them either for the first couple of reps.At 2:02 they were visible and he locked onto them – but the decel and slow turn away were not there, everything happened fast, so he was not sure. And the higher the turn away hand, the more he asked a question. So on that side, you can get the cookie hands down low and visible and stationary, as if you are handing him a cookie 🙂 Then as he arrives at the hand, a slow turn away will make a big difference like it did at :58 and 1:03. And think of it as turning his head away rather than indicating the wing – if you turn him away, he will find the wing 🙂
This is one of the few cues that require hands as a main component which is part of why it is really hard! But making them obvious will really help him lock on so you can turn him away.
Those reps at :58 and 1:04 were ideal, so keep repeating those and you will be able to get the behavior very consistently.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
> I LOVE him, but I hate his mouth! >
HA!! Even part-Paps are noisy 🙂 but he was just cheering you on. And the silence while running is so nice 🙂
Well done with the 2 wing blinds with Canny! I agree – the 2 wing game is harder than it looks. And handling very small dogs is harder than it looks too. But you did an excellent job getting the proper exit line connection AND looking downwards towards his actual eyes. He had no questions. Super!
Nifty’s session also went really well – did it feel easier to connect to her? It looked easier – and she had no questions. Super!
One thing I suggest with both dogs to make the blinds even easier – keep your arms in as tight as possible as you send to the start wing, and as you do the blinds. I think of them almost like chicken wing position: elbows bent, arms tight to the ribs, and a little back behind you. Having your arms in nice and tight will make the rotations quicker and movement along the lines faster, which helps the connection be quicker too. This will help as we build into the sequence work.
Wow, Canny picked up the ‘mouse line’ on the L-shaped blind immediately! Love it! Your timing was really good but your connection was GREAT so Canny had wicked tight turns. Super!
And it was cracking me up to hear you go from telling him he is a bad beast to telling him how much you love him. Ha!!!
Nifty also found the tight lines brilliantly. She was beating you to the wing but your connection was super, so she picked up the really tight turn line.
>I totally didn’t realize until I watched the video that at 0:58 she doesn’t commit, and pulls off the wing instead.>
Yes, a small blooper. My guess is that you were not fully connected when you released her there, so she was looking at you more already and not committing, as compared to the other reps here where your timing was the same and she did commit. I think if it was the middle of a sequence, it would not have been a problem. The rest of the reps looked great!!!
Both dogs looked terrific – onwards to the one jump and two jump games (and tunnel games :))
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Nice work on these sessions!!
First video:
The sending to the middle jump went really well! Her line commitment is coming along nicely! You can delay the toy throw a bit – send her with your arm/foot/connection, and throw the toy after she locks onto the jump. By the end you were throwing it as the cue to take the jump, so delaying it will help us be sure that she is understanding the send and not just looking for the toy 🙂
How is her stay going? It looked like you wanted to use a stay then changed your mind 🙂 You can work the stay into this and we can build it up.
When moving to the first jump and going from the tugging to the stay, try to line her up without holding her collar – I think holding her and moving her into position with the collar builds anticipation to go go go when you actually want her to stay 🙂Will she tug on that toy? Definitely keep the party going when you get the toy by playing with it more – so she keeps interacting with it and you. I think using the tug toy that you had at the beginning is even better 🙂
On the 2nd video:
She has gorgeous tug drive – you should use the tug on course in training a lot more! Don’t be afraid of the extra excitement a toy brings to the game, or if she runs around with it like a nut: we can work through all of that LOL!
She did well with her lines here too at the beginning. When you wanted more of a send, you were looking a little too forward to the jump and not at her (1:11, 1:15 for example)… that turned your shoulders away from the line so she didn’t take it (totally normal young dog stuff).
If you look *very* directly at her as she is landing from the previous jump, she is going to see the line of your shoulders better and find the line better on the sends. With young fast dogs, is it usually super helpful for them if we really exaggerate our connection for now. When she got the send jump, she found the next jump really well! Yay!
Since this is going really well… you can start adding more of your motion. Stay super connected and run run run – and you can add the FC wraps and the fluffy blinds too 🙂
>I always feel so late with her and it causes her to skid.>
You are doing really well with all the verbals: you are saying them multiple times which really helps get the timing because you are making it easier for her to process them. And also, that is why we keep the bars low at this stage: so we can work out our timing and the youngsters can work out their responses. If she is skidding on the turf, you can spray her feet or wrap her feet so she has more traction.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Really nice job working through the set point with him! He might have been a little confused about the stay –
He probably didn’t really see the treat throws with the toy being such a big visual. Try to lower the toy to the ground, wait for a couple of seconds – then throw the toy (or a 2dnd toy) back to him. I think he will like that and will definitely see it better than the treat 🙂I think the distance between the bumps is good and your setup spot (for him and for you) was good on that last rep when he did both jumps. So for the next session, start where you left off here at 2:50 – and when you release him, start dragging the toy so he is seeing the moving target reward.
> Just before the rep at 1.30 he was very distracted, but he did it and i had a major party – which helped him lock in for the last couple of reps!>
Definitely! He might have been caught in the pool of scent from the treat that he didn’t see earlier? But he worked through it really well and that last rep was terrific too.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
This was a super strong directional review for him – he did really well finding the cone wrap in both directions, except for the two times he cheated by jumping over your legs (but did not get a reward LOL!)
> Ts-ts is Towards my more Tattooed arm.>
This is a brilliant way to remember it 🙂
>(I apologise for the noises from the cheap seats, Frank is in a crate right next to the camera!)>
No worries at all – It was a good distraction for Barry! The game was easy enough that he could still be successful while tuning out the sad song of his brother 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! This went really well!!
She was ducking right into the tunnel, finding the lines, responding to the handling cues, and running fast!The only spots she didn’t quite see the line were when she had a crime-of-passion on the 2nd run – she was going too fast out of the tunnel, so she missed the jump which messed up your BC timing. The fixed it on the next reps! And I love that she was going that fast! Good job continuing because she was being a good girl there.
The other spot was when she needed to see a little more connection at 3:16 to show her the jump before the tunnel. That was just a bit of inexperience showing where she needed to see really exaggerated connection to get the whole line.
> I think my timing was a little off and I kept wanting to do a front that put me on the wrong side after the wrap.>
You can totally start the BC sooner, which will give you more time to decelerate for the turn after it. I think you were wanting to do the FC there because it turns your feet back to the next line sooner and that is good! You can do that turn as a spin – FC then BC. It might feel more natural!
Back to the BC timing – you were tending to start it at takeoff for the middle jump, which made it a little late.
You can get to a better position for the blind by being further away from the jum after the tunnel – your line can be heading towards the middle jump and she should find the jump after the tunnel as long as you are connected to her eyes.And with you further up the line, you can start the BC sooner: when she is taking the jump after the tunnel, you can begin the blind and gt it finished and re-connected before she takes off for the middle jump.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>. I do not have a target cue for anything. I say “hit it” for both dog walk and A frame as he approaches them. I say “see saw, see saw, see saw” for the teeter. Benni was taught the see saw using the 2 table method so I did not do these games with Benni as they were not incorporated in Max Pup at that time. So just say “ready” then?>
You can stick with ready while you are holding him, then maybe do an interim cue like ‘hop on’ if you want to say something. Or you can say ready 2 times then let go and see how he does.
>And do I continue keeping the board about that high off the ground for the bang game? Do we ever make it a bit higher or there is no point to that?>
The board eventually gets to be almost parallel to the ground, depending on the individual dog. But for now – keep it at this height and play this game with as many different teeters as possible.
>Also, because of the shape of my teeter board, the red band does not fit snuggly at the very end. I was using that small container to take up the slack but that will not work when the teeter is actually hitting the ground. It was fine for mountain climber.>
You can use a thick strip of duct tape – cheap and easy 🙂
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning! Welcome home! I bet he enjoyed the hose breaks – it looks like you were getting some lovely Cali sunshine!
The threadles are going really well! He was able to get the threadle from different positions/angles and it looks like he was anticipating going back out to the jump really well too. You can play with showing him the threadle and the serp in the same session, as a bit of a position discrimination exercise. The MM can be parallel to the wing so it is able to be used for both cues.
For the backsides: he was finding the correct side of the wing really well. You start closer to the wing (rather than do a big send) so you can support the parallel line to the backside with more motion. On the 2nd side, you had more motion but if you start closer to the wing, you can run more 🙂 He was finding it really well (and ignoring the placed reward :)) with you moving your line laterally further across the bump, which is great! You can keep getting further away laterally and as he is heading to the backside – move along a serp line or even past the bump as if there was an exit wing (like a German turn) because it adds the countermotion element. The placed reward will help him commit to the bump even with countermotion, and you can also mix in throwing a reward behind you to the landing side of the bump.
The head turns/double wraps went well – good job cueing that head turn! He seemed a little more fluid to the right, maybe turning right is his easier side? You can delay the reward throw a bit: rather than throwing it after he turns his head, you can throw it when he finishes the 2nd wrap – that will get the body bending into the turn after his head leads the way 🙂
Great job on these!!
Tracy
Hi!
He is finding the backside line really well with the advanced level too – he seemed to have no questions about going to the backside of the barrel, then back in for the ‘serp’ over the bumps.
You can add more lateral distance before the release here so you are moving up the line to the center of the bumps, rather than towards the barrel (or where the barrel & bump meet). One thing you can do is lay a leash or line on the ground so you have a visual of where to move to – and keep moving it further and further away from the barrel so your line gets further lateral on each rep. And as you build up more distance, 2 things to add:
– move forward for 2 or 3 steps to set the line to the backside before releasing him to start moving
– have the treat ready in your hand so you can throw it to the landing side of the bump (closer to the barrel) so he gets the instant reward for coming to the bump (and bar in the future) and not looking for you.Great job!
Tracy
