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Hi!
This skill is looking good! She is coming to the correct side of the wing really well, and just needs a tiny bit of hand motion to help her turn away to the wing. That is perfectly fine, you can keep giving her a low hand movement to turn her away. Keeping your cookie hand low will keep her from looking up as you turn her away. And as you turn her away, keep your feet forward – try not to step to the jump at all.
I think she is ready for you to add a wing before it, so you are both moving a bit faster 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Looking at course 1:
The walk through looked good! Most of the handling plan and execution looks good. 2 details to consider:
I think the only handling improvement I would suggest is at 2 – you don’t need to turn and face the jump as much. You can be rotated and moving towards 3, so she passes you on that wrap.
And a handling choice question: On the threadle to the blind at 15-16, the blind for a heartbeat shows motion to the off course jump. So be SUPER early with it so she clearly sees your connection before takeoff and doesn’t go off course, or do a front cross which shows no motion towards the off course jump.
Everything else looked good in terms of plan… but as I mentioned above, the next step is to be able to run that plan at Nox speed. That way you can feel how fast everything has to be, and also focus on the timing of the cue delivery.
The opening looked good on the first run and even better on the 2nd run!
You had a question in the video about which verbal to use, I was not sure if it was the verbal at 1:28 for jump 8 (should be threadle verbal ) and you did a greta job getting there, btw! Unless you meant 10? That would be more connection and an out cue to get her on the line. I think you said Go on the 2nd run and moved to it more and she did well!2nd walk through after the break:
Good connection, good plan – verbals too quiet because you are not moving fast 🙂
2nd run – very nice! Much clearer on 9-10. Yo can give her more connection on. The exit of 12 to get the tight line to the weaves.
You are correct, you would need to fade away from the weaves to get your plan done with the 14-15-16 line. The other option would be to send to 15 and stay on the other side of 16 to get the ending line. It is doable that way too!
You found out that the blind presents the off course after 15 (other folks found this out too) because as you are blinding, the shoulders and feet turn to the off course. Now, if you are perfect in your execution and really early, the blind works well! If you are a little late? Off course! So the FC is a great plan and she read it immediately when you did it.
At the very end, she turned right at 3:51 instead of left because she needed to see more rear cross pressure to get the left turn – your line was towards the right turn wing.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is going really well, and the runs were really quite strong!!!>>Even before I reviewed the videos after running the sequences, I think I did a better job of being very thorough with the walk through since I knew you’d be watching, lol.
Ha! That’s so funny!
Looking at the video – in your walk throughs, your handling choices and plans are strong, and they are clear in the walk through. I know exactly what you want the dog to do. You were working your connections and had them mostly all in place (a little challenging here and there but no glaring big connection issues at all – the connection was there in the walk through and there in the runs).
So to help get you into that first run best run mode where the first run truly is the best one… the things to add in the walk through are more consideration of timing, and more running speed from you 🙂 I think that is where the bloopers came from – you were jogging in the walk through but that was an entirely different speed than the actual run (Nox is FAST FAST FAST 🙂 ). Your 2nd or 3rd run was great, because you had the rhythm and speed for that run after doing it once or twice already,
So after deciding the handing and connection, think about the WOO timing – where does she need to see the cues start, where will she be on course? Remember that it will be no later than exit of the previous obstacle. And be sure to be connected to the invisible dog in that spot 🙂
Then when all of that is decided: run it as fast as you think she will go, or faster. This is exhausting LOL!! But totally worth it. You will get the feel of what is going to happen and execute your plan a few times at top speed – and you’ll be totally ready to run her. The goal is to be able to run it faster in the walk through than she will need to see it in the run.
So looking at the runs, here are some examples of where focus on timing and the faster walk throughs will help you nail it in the run.
On the first sequence – yes, the one big step into the layering at top speed and with with big loud verbals!) will really help you get her directly onto the layering lines. That connection and timing at speed is not easy so definitely practice going into it at a run.
Seq 2: Your plan is really good! The spots to get more speed in the walk through are the 3-4 FC and the FC at 9.
The off course tunnel on the FC 3-4 at 2:02 was a combo of being late (you finished it as she was landing) and also you were backing up – and backwards motion is same as forward motion so she took the tunnel. Running through it will help you eliminate the moving backwards and focusing on the timing will help you be much earlier.
Looking at the walk through, you are rehearsing it late. At 1:35 and 2:41, for example, you are starting the FC and connecting with an invisible dog that is over the bar. That mirrors what you did at 2:01 and 3:04. The FC should start when she lands from 2, so connect to your invisible dog there then begin the FC so it is finished before takeoff to 3.
The FC at 9 was just a matter of getting the line at speed.
The error at 3:14 of pushing her to the tunnel after the FC on 9 is a speed-in-walk-through error. So that is a spot to add more running in the walk through for sure.3rd run looked really good!
Seq 3:
As you noted in the video, your arm didn’t want to stay back on the 5-6 section LOL! Your shoulder was too closed forward in the walk through at 5-6 as you run past the tunnel which mirrors the handling at 4:09 so she had questions there. So as you run through there, you can practice making the strong connection back to her to get her past the tunnel. As she gets more experienced running past tunnels in this context, the easier it will be 🙂 Everything else looked great!Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Welcome back from vacation, I hope you had a blast!
Close Enough Farm looks so lovely! I have heard great things about it and the people up there are really nice and tons of fun. She seemed to have a great time running there!And WOW your speedstakes run at Level Up is GORGEOUS!!!!!! So connected and smooth, and so FAST!
>>Our first run was really nice until I decided I couldn’t make my blind (watching the video, I totally could have!), and then it got messy from there.>>
I don’t see that run here, so that means we can focus only on the brilliant run 🙂
>>She runs a lot slower at LUDS than on grass and at Quicksilver.
My dogs also struggle on the LU turf. So I run them with their feet wrapped like in Flyball, that seems to help! And I am careful about what I enter – only good judges (Rosanne is a good judge 🙂 ) and I don’t enter the very twisty courses there.
Onwards to the videos!
TracyHi!
>>I tried the set point again at 16″ height but the space was 6′. I thought this looked more comfortable for her than the 5′ spacing?
Yes, I liked the 6 foot spacing! On the set point reps, she was sitting at an awkward distance away from the first jump: to close to take a stride to step in, and too far to just push off her rear. So she was doing a little extra front foot lift and I think that was changing the jumping. Is try moving her stay position to about 8-12″ inches from the first jump, so she can power off her rear and into the set point.
>She also did the adjustable stride grid with jump 4 starting at 15′ away from jump 3 and I moved it out in one foot increments to 19′ and then back in. I noticed that the further out it got she didn’t seem to modify her take-off point but rather she took off from farther and farther away from jump 4.
She did a great job adjusting to the 2 stride here each time (that is what you were seeing her do when she was taking off further away: adding more extension 🙂 And that is good! Since 16″ is new, for now, don’t change the distance. Leave the 16″ jump in the same place for a full session. I think you can start by getting her to 1-stride if you put it at 12 feet away. Then if she one-strides, put it 14 feet away for the next session. if she still one strides (2 hits of the front feet), you can then try it at 15 feet.
>>Do you think she should be doing only one stride?
I think as an adult dog, yes, she will do one stride in extension at 15 and 18 feet. But as a 14 month old teenager? She is still powering up to it, so we have time and can help her sort it out. She might not be able to produce the powerful one strides til she is 18 months or 2 years old, and that is fine! As long as her form is good, we can let her body mature. My large dogs were the same way: 2 strides or 3 strides as teenagers 🙂 and then one stride as adults 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know how she does!
TracyHi!
I think she is learning like a sponge! Amazing! Next on our list is the rear cross stuff – the live class starts to dig into that. Stay tuned!!!T
Hi!
Hi!>>I’m sticking with what’s in their online rules book which is much less restrictive. No one has fussed at me yet for what I’ve been doing.
Perfect! It sounds like everyone is very relaxed about it.
>>but thank goodness for the live classes I’m not too far behind to be able to catch up (hopefully – what’s our last posting date for this class?).>>
Because this summer has been hotter than usual, we are going to extend the class into September. I haven’t put an exact date on it yet, but probably some time around Sept 15 or so. I will get it sorted out soon, so people don’t feel time pressured while dealing with 100 degree heat.
Teeter angles: this is looking good! Theoretically he will only ever see a straight entry but he was doing a great job using his hind end to line up to straighten himself up (very useful for th DW too!) I think you can slide the broad jump boards in a little closer to the teeter, so he has less help lining up straight – he is ready for a bigger challenge.
sing the real 2020 is great because he is already working at that level. He generally looked great! He is a little forward at the end of the board, meaning his weight is a bit in his shoulders so he was getting a little bounce on the board and then came off it (thought bubble moment haha) when the MM was further away. I play the rebound game to help the dogs shift back into their rear end to hold the position more firmly:
Thank you for leaving the howling with the sirens in! That is a big distraction and he came back to focus very nicely after the sirens were past 🙂
Zig zags:
These are going well! Most of it was SUPER easy for him! On those easier angles, keep trying to get him to line up sitting parallel to the first wing other than facing the bar, so he jumps in sideways like he would do on a backside serp.
When he gets to the level of difficulty where you lose the bounce – try overlapping the wings more so the distance is shorter. They all lose the bounce for a moment when we get to that level (this is a HARD jumping skill) so the overlapped wings can help. If he still has questions, you can open the jumps up a tiny bit. The other thing you can add is a toy on the ground as a focal point, as well as a moving target reward (dragging the toy) to help him sort out his power on these zig zags 🙂The lap and tandem turns went really well. I think on the first couple of reps, it took him a minute to realize he needed to look at your hands and not just drive to the wing! The big break through moment was the shakeyshakey hand at :29, which helped him realize to watch your hands and not just look for the wing. Then when you switched sides, he did REALLY nicely on those! For the first time, I think I see a side preference: I think he is a lefty! He wanted to turn left out of the tunnel when you needed to set the right turns at the beginning, and then the left turns on t he other wing were SUPER zippy and smooth. He is incredibly balanced so it is fun to guess if he is a lefty or righty 🙂 Today, he is a lefty LOL!
The other thing that will help is if you call him before he enters the tunnel so he knows to turn and look for you on the exit (you were using the verbals after he exited). So it can be a name call before entry, then switch to the threadle verbals for the lap and tandem turns.
The last 2 reps were really lovely, a super nice balance of left/right wing commitments and the threadley moments at 1:47 and 2:01. Yay!!!
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I am glad she is not thinking about moles anymore LOL!!!I think handling key to get her to work at these distances is motion – when you are moving, she ready everything well! When you were stopped? She had questions 🙂 So bearing in mind that it would be the middle of a course and not a gamble line, you can strategize to keep moving the whole time:
When sending her into the tunnel t the start of the sequence, start closer to the wrap wing so you are accelerating her into the tunnel so the Go verbal and the ‘out over’ verbals are all happening sooner (before the tunnel) and repeated. And then keep moving up the line, with your connection in place and shoulders open to her (opposite arm if needed too)
The first rep of going back to the tunnel was a good example of connection and motion and verbals all working together nicely! On the 2nd rep you stopped moving too soon, so she came off the line. In this scenario, you can hold your position very close to the wing wrap til she exits it, then accelerate back down the line, staying in motion the whole time.
Now, from the training perspective – we can get more training in place so the handling is easier 🙂 We need to get reinforcement out on that big line early and often, so your handling is not as important and she will go to the line based on your verbals and a little bit of motion. I think our two options are
– to have a reward already placed on the line for her to lock onto, in an easy and highly visible place to begin with then move it further and further up the line
– to throw a reward really early, as she is driving away, to solidify the driving away. Then we throw it later and later.I am guessing the frisbee will be like magic for this 🙂 If you throw it early at first, to get her looking at the line, then we gradually throw it later and later. I think she will LOVE that and then you will have a very easy time getting her on the big lines, and your motion won’t be as important 🙂
>>Also, I know in the class you had people running to the far wing on jump #5. My dogwalk is right there (and not moveable) and I was concerned I’d be sending Keiko right up the ramp. Should I try that far wing anyway?>>
You can try it but if you think it might be too close to the DW then no worries – we can get her going on the lines without it 🙂 Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! How is puppy Casper doing?
I totally share your opinion about NOT broiling the dogs and the humans – this has been a HOT summer. And when it is not terribly hot, the humidity tries to suck the life out of me LOL!
On the first video:
The first run (wrapping to the right) was very easy, as expected, basically just a warm up to show the front of that jump. You can still work the connection in it – especially at the wrap exit – to make the connection a habit so it is at your fingertips in more complex sequences.
On on the 2nd walk through – definitely work the connections here more too, so that connections are habit. The outline of the walk through was good, but you were not rehearsing the connection. So you brain had to do it for the first time during the run. That didn’t make a big difference here but on more complex sequences (handling skills or timing sequences), the connection will be super important, so have the rehearsal process in place will really help. And to get that, you can rehearse more connection even if it seems simple, so rehearsing the connection will feel very natural on the harder sequences too.
On the first run – subtle things happened when you didn’t connect
As he was over jump 2 at :57, you were looking forward so he was looking at you and jumping towards you. At 1:02, you were a little late turned and not connected so he almost went off course until you reconnected a 1:03. Same thing happened at 1:23 even though your shoulder turn was timely – he thought about going to the blue jump til he saw the connection. When you did the FC there. To set up the slice wrap – he totally new where to go! So if the shoulder turn might not show him the line, you can work the FC to the slice (decelerating into the wrap after it and rotating sooner will tight en that one up), or use a spin there to keep him on your right.>>This went pretty well. I did the longer sequence twice using your handling, I don’t remember why. I also did it a third time, replacing the wraps with slices. Generally, Enzo is faster with slices but I recently did some timing work and we found a couple of times when the wrap was faster. I would like a better understanding…>>
My handling is just a suggestion, there are about a zillion ways to do it 🙂 I like to compare! The slice versus wrap will depend on how the dog can turn, as well as the yardage and number of turns. It was hard to time the difference here because the turn on the 270 was wider when you did the backside wrap versus when you did the backside slice and the FC to the slice to the ending line. So the direct comparisons make the slices faster but it was because of the FC, not the slice versus wrap. The slices on this sequence have more yardage, but he has to slow down a lot to wrap on mats (he can be faster on turf or grass).
>>Small problem here: I essentially never use an “out” to mean “move away from me to pick up a jump”. I use it when a tunnel discrimination cannot be characterized as the far one is on your direct line versus coming in toward me. Even then, I try to avoid that situation. Therefore, I worked very hard to be past the line of jump 2, so that my motion could support Enzo’s line away from me.>>
I like having the physical cue to support the line! I added the verbal and the outside arm (not as obvious with this demo dog as it would be with Voodoo) because I was finding it really hard to be ahead on a lot of the bigger lines. You can use your out verbal here, or add a different verbal (I personally think we all have enough verbals at the moment LOL!) or use the upper body turn-towards-the-dog pressure that you did here – a very forceful connection! He hd a little trouble reading it the first time at :25, even though I think you did a darned good job of getting past the wing of 2 when he was landing from 1. (There was not verbal on that first rep til he landed from 2, so definitely add a verbal to help him).
He read it well on the 2nd run at :36 – you were not as early with the physical cue, but your verbal cue was earlier and he had already seen it once 🙂
>>Then, I guess to be a wise-guy, I did it from the other side (since IRL, I would work very hard to be on the other side).
Ha! You were not being a wise-guy! In fact, especially when it is hard to get to the push out if you have to be ahead of the dog, doing the rear cross can be very effective there. Stay tuned for the live class next week with the topic of “using rear crosses for great turns and to get ahead of the dog”. So on this rear cross – you can rear cross 3 like you did, then send to 4 without going past the 3 jump. When he is on the way to 4, you are already ahead at 5 to 6 and setting that line. You went in a little deeper to 4 after the RC than you needed to and that got a little bit of a zig zag. But I timed the RC rep with the ‘out’ rep before it and they were basically identical. I bet if you get further ahead for 5-6, the RC becomes the faster option 🙂
>>The final, longer sequence took a bit longer to decide how to handle.
There are a LOT of options on this one! I agree with your final choice of lines, especially the 7-8-9 section. I think through the boxes like 3-4-5-6 the best options are to spin 4-5 or to FC 4-5 then RC 5 to keep the line tighter 4-5, then BC 6-7. He doesn’t turn on your shoulder that well yet, he wants to pick up the line. We can work on that though, as well as use more handling to help him out.
You had a little blooper on the first rep (you stepped him into the off course at 1:26). The 2nd run looked good with the spin at 1:40, but then the turns are wide (see below for more ideas on that). You asked for more turns on the 3rd rep, and it looked lovely!
>>This is the type of sequence that Enzo tends to “E” on because he jumps pretty wide. The first error I cleaned up with a delayed blind cross (don’t know what you call that). It is not my favorite move but can tighten up a turn.
That is interesting! I think you can do it all with RCs and win the class. That way you can get the great turn and leave for your next position, rather than needing to manage the turns when you are ahead of him. That is part of what we will be addressing in the live class: when handling from ahead is NOT the best plan. Try this all with RCs – be on the other side of 1-2-3 and RC 3. Sen dot 4, then do the FC-RC to get 5 to 6 nice and tight. Then send to a tight switch RC on 7, which then puts you ahead at 8-9-10.
I know the trend is to handle from ahead but that might be getting him to jump wider than needed. He has beautifully trained RC skills so we can now apply them to places where they get the great turn and you still end up in fabulous position on course. Let me know fi that makes sense – I have several levels of this coming next week: beginner-ish stuff for the dogs that are still learning their RCs, and Enzo-level stuff for dogs that have great RC skills. When I filed the Enzo-level stuff, I was honestly surprised at how advantageous it was and how well my dogs turned, even though they are not nearly as well-trained on RCs as Enzo is. I wonder if using more RCs is the key to this type of sequence? Let me know you think!
>>The weather is cooling off and I hope to build a course in the yard! Also, it looks like I should back up to package 3! My threadle slice cue is IN-IN-IN and my threadle wrap cue (never seen it in an AKC course of any flavor) is IN-Switch.>>
Cool weather is definitely welcomed with open arms!!!! The threadle wrap has not made a full on appearance yet in AKC. My guess is that you’ll see it in 2023 in Premier (it is probably not legal in Standard or JWW). And I also think you will see it at NAC, where fancy things come along more frequently 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Changing handling options is always good, there are tons of ways to handle it!Warm up versus in the moment threadle wrap
FC 1-2-3 worked, and the layering looked good on he line to the waves! His weave entries looked great 🙂
The double blind after the weaves was also strong. You were VERY timely on the 2nd blind at :24 and thet really hoped him find the line! He was a little wide, so even a tiny bit of decel can make it perfect.I loved the serp on the jump after the weaves – it got a better turn hen the blinds and kept you moving ahead like the blinds did. He ;liked it too – he was hot and tired looking before it then went back to full speed after it 🙂
Serping the line after the DW works really well too, and your cues were conneced and on time, super!!! If you are going to serp it, it makes more sense to keep him on your left and do a push to the circle wrap.
Comparing the warm up threadle wrap where he got it, versus in the moment threadle wrap at :36 and :48 where he sliced: he is sill learning it, so I think you need to move more slowly through it for now (like you did in the warm up).
Also, you were doing a full post turn (facing the dog walk on the exit) and it might be easier for you and clearer for him if your feet are facing forward the whole time. Doing the turn to the full DW does point your feet to the slice line for a moment, so you would have to be super perfect with timing to get the wrap. You rotated really fast and early a :53 and 1:05 but that is going to be really hard to do when you are running into it. And then during the 2nf full run, you tried o rotated early and fast and then called him too soon. So – use your upper body, verbal and connection to cue the turn, but your feet can be facing forward the whole time. And then when he is finishing the wrap, you can do a blind and pick him up on your left.
The praise and forward motion after he go the threadle wrap caused him to go off course at 1:06 – you started the right right when he was already in the air and locked onto the tunnel. You didn’t praise as much and you called the right sooner at 1:59… but it was still late and he sill ended up in the tunnel LOL! Part of that is having to finish the rotation with your feet from the threadle wrap – if your feet are already pointing forward, you can show motion to the correct line sooner. He basically makes the decision about the next jump as soon as he exits the threadle wrap, so that is the WOO of the timing: when he finishes coming around the threadle wrap wing – any later and you’ll end up with the off course.
At 2:25 you started the next course and he stumbled at 2 and was slow on the dog walk – I would say he was hot and tired. He did a LOT of work on the other course so he probably was a bit done before starting this run. The course overall ran well, but he was definitely a couple of beats slower (it is a zillion degrees out LOL!!). So if you have a lot of work on one course, you can skip the other course (or don’t worry about getting the first course perfect if you want to do both).
>>I did like how I did my run through, and my actual run.
It was easy to find you – you were the only one running LOL!! Nice walk through! It was also really interesting to watch the discussion with the judge that ended up with the course being changed – that is crazy and should have allowed for a longer walk through or something.
Also, tables are stupid. You probably will need to help and really slow him down for those stupid tables LOL! Otherwise, it was a great run.
>>I was very confused about the WP entry, I thought Grizzly had entered wrong. I did not know until someone mentioned to me that he had entered correctly. I was VERY disappointed at myself, after so many years training and competing, after 5 dogs, WHY??? Do you mind giving me your feedback?>>
I LOVED your aggressive blind cross approach to this JWW run! About the weaves – he did a funky step before the entry, so I can see why it might have looked/felt weird. But having him weave the other entry? That is just a mental error. I make mental errors like that when I am tired (physically or mentally tired, or both). If I am tired, maybe not eating right, and use up all of my brain juice doing a lot of focused work that day? I might make an error like that. So at the next trial, set aside plenty of time to rest and eat and hydrate and I am sure you won’t make that mistake again.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> Maewyn is usually 50/50 on dog walk stop in a trial….I was thinking she had slowed down, but looking at this I don’t think so…Oops!!!
Ha! Yep, the DW looked plenty fast LOL!
>>I had thought about running the far side of the dog walk so I could push her to the correct side….
You would have to have been way ahead of her, because this was definitely a running DW LOL!
>>but I really would like to improve this skill with her. It is hard to see it because it is in the furthest corner away from the camera.>>
It looks like on the first rep there was might have been a verbal cue, but the physical cue looked straight. And on the 2nd rep, you had the arm cue going and better cues – but released the arm and turned the shoulder back to the tunnel before she changed her line to the threadle side of the tunnel. So hold onto the threadle arm til you know she is going to the correct side of the tunnel, then relax it back to normal position.But even with perfect handling, she would have to understand the context. Coming off a dog walk, if she is going to run it, that cue needs to start no later than the top of the down ramp so she can process it and adjust her striding. On a jump line, that translates to seeing it before she takes off from the previous jump (jump before the tunnel).
Some dogs do better when we turn our shoulders to them to get the threadle, some dogs do better when we show the threadle arm and turn our shoulders away from her – but that change of shoulders and line of motion will be key for her! Try it from a stay on the jump or end of the DW and see which is better for her (shoulders turns her, or shoulders turning away). Do it at a walk, then add in more and more speed when she is successful. Then, you can add more speed coming into it as a well, so she can get the skill in flow and high speed 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning!
Definitely an interesting session here and there were a lot of factors in play.From the handling perspective, I think it comes down to a couple of things:
If you face the jump and move forward til he is passing you and looking at the jump – he gets the #3 jump. This is what happened at the very beginning and also at the very end. If you either push in towards him too soon (before he is passing you and on the line to 3), or if you don’t face the jump (leaving your shoulders open to the other jump he was going towards) – he doesn’t take 3. In the walk through, you were doing a good job of showing the line but things happened faster when he was running, so that clarity got lost sometimes. That means add more speed to the walk through 🙂So definitely keep showing the line to 3, running forward for longer til he is passing you and committing to 3. But that is a precise behavior and when the stimulation comes up, the arousal makes it harder for him to process the precision cues in motion: barking, the white noise, errors on course all cause arousal to spiral up which leads to more errors. And it is a cycle: if he gets it wrong, he is going to change arousal and be more prone to barking at things and the white noise getting added to the environment (which is probably pretty aversive at worst or at best, changes arousal state again). Changing things up more frequently will help the entire session, rather than lots of reps in a row. Taking the breaks during the session was great and I think it helped him – but let’s add the breaks in before he struggles, so ideally we don’t get the struggle happening 🙂
That means we should structure the sessions differently: rather than get it right then try it again, get it right that one time and move on to something else. Even if you get it wrong… do something else. Then if you want, you can come back to it later. Historically with Buccleigh, getting it right followed by trying it again has not been highly successful, so we can just change the format of his sessions. Why does it happen like that? Arousal might come up, or he might be asking why we are doing it again and offering different behavior (or both). But either way – I think trying it once then doing something else then coming back to it later will produce far more successful sessions 🙂
Nice work on the rear here! Let me know what you think of the idea to change the structure of the sessions for him.
TracyHi! Happy 14 month birthday, Dora!!!
I think she looks great here, she is doing really well with her jumping!! Yes, give her 6 feet and see how it goes – but she did a great job here on 5 feet at 16″: fast, powerful but also super coordinated! I think the 6 feet will be a better distance, though, to let her round her spine and keep her head down (the moving toy totally helps too!) To begin bringing the bar up, you can do the accordion grid, where the last jump is 15 feet away at 16″ and see how it goes! That will give her more room for striding and I bet she does a great job with it!!
Tracy
Hi!
These courses went really well! You aced pretty much all of the challenges – a couple of trouble spots, sure, but they are training courses so they aren’t meant to be trouble-free LOL!Course 1: You can work on layering the jumps as she is doing the dog walk in the opening! It will be a helpful skill at trials.
The entire middle section looked great! She had a little question on 12 to 13 (the backside circle wrap, ticked the bar, went a little wide) – you can decel more to help her (and pick her up on your left, to rear cross the weave entry) rather than try to accelerate to get the blind. Also, is push your verbal for both the backside slice and the backside circle? It was a little hard to hear. If it is the same word for both… you should definitely consider different words, because they are different behaviors.Bummer about the weave exit! You can reward that exit so you can move away like you wanted to. After she got it, the ending went well, very connected and fast! Nice!!!!
Course 2:
The tunnel whoa in the opening worked really well!
A thing that bit you a couple of times on this course: give her exit directionals on the tunnel, rather than being quiet or saying the name of the name obstacle (because she doesn’t necessarily know where the next obstacle is) For example, you can tell her to go go go before she enters 5 to get a straight exit to 6, so she doesn’t curl in at 1:21NICE weave entry with really not that much handling help! Totally worthy of a reward! Yay!
Small detail about the throwback on 8 after the weaves – to get better collection, put your hand on the takeoff side nice and low and hold it still, rather than swoosh it to the landing side. The stationary hand on the takeoff side is for dogs with strong commitment who need to collect more (Josie) and the swoosh to the landing side is for dogs that need more speed or commitment (NOT Josie. 🙂 )
After the dog walk, the tricky parts begin 🙂
You can be earlier with the FC cues on 11-12 at 2:17, you were moving forward after the dog walk release so she thought you wanted extension. The cross was earlier at 2:53 and she got a much better collection! You can connect more on the exit to get her line even tighter by reaching back with your eyes and not having your right arm trying to reach back to her at all – arm back and down, so it is out of the way of the connection 🙂The threadle wrap on jump 13 at 2:23 is the hardest part of the course. Try to slow dow nthe cues so she can process them – she was almost getting it but needs you to walk through it a bit more and let her get the turning in before you take off for the next line. Same suggestion for the backside at 16 – slow down the handling cues like you did at 3:33 to make it super clear for her – those threadley-rear moves are newer so she needs the extra moment to process them.
At the end:
>>I was clearly telling her to climb early, but then driving home was wondering if GO would be better to she knows to drive out straight.>>
This is where a directional telling her how to exit the 17 tunnel will be more useful than an obstacle name, because she really doesn’t know where the frame is, exactly, when you are behind her. And definitely reward her when things go wrong – you can hear the pitch of her barking change to a frantic pitch when you stopped but didn’t reward! Based on her line when when she got it with you behind her, the tunnel exit to the frame is a bit of an ‘out’ not a straight line, so the directional will be more effective than the obstacle name. At the very end, you were ahead so your running line set the path (making it look like a go) but the directionals will help when you are running into it for real 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
