Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
We missed you last night!
For Lu, keep playing the ‘find the jump’ games and bring them to as many different places as possible. I would stick to lower bars and food for now as that seems to be the most successful and she is doing great! You can add tugging before and after, add your motion because eventually we would like to be able to run run run the way you can run (you are FAST and I know Lu will love that, but she is not quite ready for it yet :))Next time you have a UKI trial, you can enter some class with lots of jumps and bring 4 or 5 toys (and a helper) – and play this game with toys tossed to the other side of the jump. The helper is designed to pick up the toys for you after she brings them back and drop them LOL This is perfectly legal in UKI.
How are her contacts and weaves coming? I think with Lu, getting them on course will help the jumping because it might make more sense to her in terms of flow and jumping finding.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
>I’m also thinking this might be a good exercise to introduce his ‘look’ cue on the first jump. At the moment I have just worked it on the flat away from agility with various objects that have nothing to do with agility and he’s doing pretty good at that so maybe it’s time?>
Yes – his stay is looking really good, and because you’ve already done the flatwork… you can totally add the cue to look at the first jump. If you have an object that he is likely to look at, you can try putting it out past the jump. However, since he likes jumps a lot and he offered a nice look during the previous session, you can try it on a jump and see what happens. If he struggles, you can put the object past the jump to help but I bet he doesn’t struggle!
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
Wow, the serps looked great here! You didn’t even have to angle the jumps!
>\I couldn’t get her to turn away from me and take the third jump though.
Usually that happens when we let go of the serp cue too soon and our shoulders end up perpendicular to the jump, so the dog is basically cued to go past it.
>I tried this at home and it worked!
Yes, it was great – keeping the serp cue in place until she turns and looks at the next jump did the job beautifully.
> My question is: When I’m using the opposite arm to get Ellie over the middle jump, should I keep that opposite arm up until she takes off for the third jump? For the single arm version, I’m trying to hold my pose until she commits to the third jump. Do I hold the opposite arm pose until then too?>
Yes, hold the cue on both styles until she turns her head to commit to the next jump. That means if you are using the opposite arm, then hold it in position too. You did this in the video and she took the jump every time here! Yay!
Great job!
TracyHi!
This was good info from her!
> You can’t see it from the camera angle, but at the 3.75ft distance for 10 & 12in, she was striding to the right a bit in the set point area as if she didn’t think she had enough room to go straight. I didnt’ see that drift to the right at 4ft.>
The dragging toy definitely helped with head position! But I also think that the 4 foot spacing might be tight for the 10 and 12 inch jumping. On those, she is pulling upwards over the bar (from her front) rather than the form of the lowered head/hind end push she is using on the lower heights. It would be interesting to see what she does at 4.5 feet and 10″ then 12″ – perhaps that 4 feet is not enough room to powerfully engage her hind end? Try it and let’s obsess LOL!
>And the chase games don’t work so well when you use Lift’s favorite frizzer for Kaladin and he drops it a few feet away and you don’t pick it up. Released her as I threw a different frizzer and she pounced on her favorite and had a grand party of one.>
Ha! But at least she still had a fun time playing with a toy!!
T
Hi!
>Did the alternating chase games with them this morning. (and discovered I own 7 soft but edged frizzers that roll- 1 is twice the size of Lift’s head so we worked with the other 6). Rolled for Kaladin twice and he actually brought them almost all the way back. Then swapped and rolled for her and she charged after it and ran back with it and spit it out a few feet away. Color me shocked! Did one more and she ran back with it but mouthed it a lot before spitting it out so we called it quits and let her run around with Kaladin (frizzer in her mouth).>
That is great! Yay! I realize that if Lift will be unimpressed with Dean holding her for the set point, maybe he can be the Kaladin friz thrower/holder so she watches that then gets the friz for you? It is much easier with 2 people LOL!
>This was after I did a 2×2 session where she did her very first (and a few more) reps of 4 straight poles together!!!! Will post video on my FB page later tonight (have a Classic swag bag stuffing party with committee this evening). The interesting thing is that she was bonkers and jumping and spinning at the start and the first time I sent her to the poles which she normally isn’t even when I do this after we come back from our walk. I had to do some back and forth to get her brains back in her head and then we did a few reps with the poles slightly separated and I put them together and she nailed it.>
Yay for 4 poles!!!!! Super!!! And it is interesting about her being a bit bonkers (<------ scientific term). It is entirely possible that it was in response to the weather system, I am sure the dogs can feel/smell the changes. T
Hi!
> he definitely had some extreme tightness and vertebrae out of alignment in the lumbar region, which likely is contributing to the poor weaves and teeter jump offs. >
Poor dude! Yes, that could definitely contribute.
>> Vet testing was all clear so it’s either just a bit of a training regression or enough pain was caused by the lumbar issues.
Training rarely regresses without an underlying issue, so my guess is that it was his lumbar ouchies.
>I’m getting a second chiro in 2 weeks, and another massage next week because she said she had more that needed work back there.>
Great! I am glad he is going back, especially since the massage person felt she didn’t get all the ouchy spots.
>I did miss class on Monday due to MY shoulder being completely jacked! So he’s not done agility since we started doing all these tests and treatments.
I think I’ll take a step back with the weaves and teeter to ease back into it. Any other suggestions?>It is actually good that he hasn’t done any agility since you started getting him feeling better – we don’t want agility to have any conditioned association with pain. Bummer about your shoulder though!!!! Before you go back to weaves/teeter or any turn training, let him be one week past being cleared by the massage and chiro people. That stuff can linger and cause compensation. The weaves and teeter will come right back when he is feeling gooooooood 🙂
T
Hi!
Watching the video, I had an a-ha moment: on all the reps where she had questions, it looks like you were rear crossing the weaves (starting on your right to send her then rear crossing the entry to your left). She was like WHAT THE WHAT?? Then on the successful reps on both sides… you didn’t rear cross. That included when she was on your left: she drove in and stayed in. So for now, be careful with setting her up on the side you want and don’t do any rear crosses 🙂
>Once she’s comfy with 6 again, do you think I should I move forward with the adding the 4 poles and keep mixing it up with the MM & the lotus ball as a reward and just plan on fading the MM once she has all 12 poles? So the MM will be a part of the whole process and work on totally fading it at the end?>
Yes, if the MM is being hidden behind a wing and you are sometimes using the lotus ball, then yes to fading it after you have 12. I think you can do the ‘box cars’ now, which is a set of 6 poles, 10 feet, another set of 6 poles. The MM will be behind a wing out past the 2nd set of 6. Start with that 2nd set, and work those. When she is happy with that, start with the first set of 6 poles and drop the lotus ball in for the reward. Then do the 2nd set of poles to the MM. Then take a deep breath and do 6 poles and as she exits, cue the next 6 poles, then reward. Let me know how it goes!
>If I try the weaves in FEO, I won’t have the MM as a visual, so I’ll keep working on “other locations” with the weaves & the MM until I can fade it from the “other location” too. Then I’ll bring it into FEO?>
Yes, we will want the MM to be a bit more faded before any weave FEO but I think that will happen pretty soon!!
T
Hi!
>Tried it again this morning and it was a disaster when doing it the way it was intended. Can I move the wings away from the tunnel more? I don’t think he’s ready for this.>
Got video? In general, what we think is an incorrect response to the cue is simply a really late cue 🙂 Send the video over and we can figure it out!
T
Hi!
>wrangling the feral one>
He is too sweet to be feral LOL! And he does try really hard with everything. Good boy!!
The smiley face looked great – lovely wraps and he did really well with the race track too. The next step is to add more motion by you running 🙂 That way you can add acceleration then decel to get the wraps, which will help sort out the timing he will need on course.
>wing proofing in front of the tunnel was a bit of a struggle.
Yes, that was harder for sure – he had a couple of “nailed it” moments when he went to the tunnel without a tunnel cue then emerged very proud of himself LOL!!! But by the end he was figuring it out! Super! You can help by being slightly rotated for the wrap cues. I think the tunnel is a big exciting draw so the rotation might help him ignore it 🙂 And if that isn’t helping, you can try a toy lure placed in the gap between the wing and tunnel, then drag it towards you as he is heading to the wing. But since he did so well at the end of the session, I am confident he will have an easier time in the next session.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
The first rep was the most insightful here – it gave the clearest feedback on the cue 🙂 After he saw that the jump was in the game, he was perfect about going to it every time. Yay!
So on that first rep, you can step more to the takeoff spot on the jump, with a lower arm and more connection. That can get commitment immediately. You were pointing ahead to the landing spot, which turned your shoulders/feet into the gap and broke connection a bit. I grabbed a screen shot so you can see what he saw:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PgeXdg3f6q7Y6xezG9qNnAvIL_gfyrsV_tz3iR3zlhk/edit?usp=sharing
After that, he was great about finding the jump but you can also be turned and indicating the takeoff spot more too on those. And you can reward on the landing side of the jump rather than from your hand, to develop even more value for that line.
>. I started using my jump cue as I’ve also started teaching that to him. Although I won’t use it on every jump I thought this might be a good place to start.>
Yes! You can release with the jump verbal, that can help be super clear!
>I also found it helpful to wait him out if he didn’t look at the jump. I’m also teaching him a verbal to mark the first jump but it’s not trained well enough to use it here>
He gave you a really clear forward focus by looking at the jump at :46! Giving him a moment to process and look at the line will really be effective, and you can also add the verbal when he is more experienced with it. Being too quick with the release might also be why he had a question on that first rep.
>At the end I also tried it on the tunnel so he could finish the session with some extension.>
He seemed to totally love that 🙂 Yay!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
This is definitely a hard skill and she moves really fast which leaves you very little time to show the cues. The magic here is getting her to see the turn cues on the wrap wing and having you face the correct direction (towards the threadle entry) before she gets to the wing wrap, so she can adjust her exit.
When you cued collection on the wing and rotated towards her on the last couple of reps, she read it really well because of all the good info happening before the wing. It did involve you rotating towards her, which might be inefficient on a bigger course so we can also look at the other rep that worked really well: at :27 you had decelerated and were fully rotated by the time she exited the wing, so she turned immediately. That kepot your feet moving forward, which will be helpful on course especially when you are not ahead of her! So you can try cueing the collection on the wing and then whipping your shoulders around to the threadle line before she even arrives at the wing. You can add your threadle arm to it too and see which works best for her.
The reps where she was convinced she should go straight to the tunnel were because as she exited the wing, you were facing that direction. Even if you were trying to turn, if it was late then she was locked onto the line to the tunnel.
I grabbed some screenshots because visuals are useful! One the first one, she sees you facing forward as she exits the wing. Zoom zoom into the tunnel! On the 2nd one, you are rotated away as she exits the wing and she gets it. On this one, I think you were also patting your leg but it looks like the shoulder turn being timely was the important factor. On the 3rd one, you are rotated towards her and that also gets her onto the correct line.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18DahbOyTPSVP7cMXfJHTVAdNfJZcti6ipD5VAK2d_HU/edit?usp=sharing
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>I love when we get a game that Ellie and I can do in just one session!>
I agree, it went really well and sometimes it is nice to just fly through something 🙂
Her bounce on the set point on reps 1 and 5 were very nice 🙂
> We did have a snafu on the second rep though. The last bar came down,>
Yes, she was surprised about the distance and didn’t have enough time to adjust. Thankfully she didn’t love that feeling of getting out of control:
> but all of the bars stayed up when we did this distance again on the fourth rep.>
Yes, what a good girl! She adjusted much better. I don’t think the distance was easy or comfy, but she is reading it and adjusting which is exactly what we want. Yay!
> I didn’t attempt to figure out exactly what went wrong or what she did differently to fix it, but it looks like she came up way short on that second rep.>
Yes – I think she was striding it the same way she was striding the first rep… then she had an OMG moment when she realized the jump was further away. She did a bigger bounce on rep 4 – good for her!
>Please also let me know if you still think Ellie is pushing off with her rear. I can never tell.>
Oh yes, she is working her hind end and core here really well! You can try having jumps 2 and 3 at 10 inches the next time you play with this. You can revisit it once a week or so, no need to do it more often than that.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>We had a FANTASTICLY FUN weekend! Frankie got her MACH4! She ran happy all weekend! YAY!>
Huge congrats!!! That is so fun!!!
> Bazinga was awesome at the trial this weekend! She Qd another FAST run!!! I’ll post videos tomorrow. >
I did see a video on Facebook with you running in big girl panties that had me laughing for hours LOL!!!
>Hahahaha! I am feeling the sheesh! Am I taking too long? I feel like I’m dragging through the weaves, teeter & DW. Is it my own fear?>
Totally relatable! The learning happens at her own pace. If she is successful? Push forward? If she needs more time to sort things out? Give her the time. There is no rush but also, push forward and don’t worry if things might go sideways 🙂
>>Oh! Ok. I have not been treating from the MM at all. I just have it out there as a kind of visual target. Maybe that is too extreme? So I can still use it – just switch it up & be surprising?>
I don’t think it is too extreme, but it is possible it has lost some value because it doesn’t spit out any treats. So you can surprise her with rewards from it and that can keep her looking ahead.
> I have been hiding always in the direct line of sight from the weave exit. Should I be putting it off to the side too? I am very bad at fading!>
Have you been tucking it behind a wing or something? Being generally on the line is good. Small variations on that are fine too, but you don’t want to put it anyplace too weird because that might distract her more than help her 🙂
>I guess I feel like (maybe this is superstitious) that she can’t find the weaves in other locations if the MM isn’t there as a target.>
It is possible that the MM has become a context cue. Hide it behind the wing of a jump and see how she does. Then you can sometimes not have it there at all, and see how she does.
>We did a session yesterday and I put the MM behind a wing and gave her some ROOM to work on the left side of the weaves and I think that helped. Maybe I was crowding her. She did much better this session on both sides. I can post a video if you want to see.>
Perfect! It is possible she was feeling crowded in previous sessions, or just needed a few more days. I would love to see the video.
>>🤣 YES!!! He got lots of attention from his aunties and did a lot of visiting. He got his first steak treats and NOW he is food motivated. He has a new Auntie Steak lol. He did a great job for such a new little guy.>
Awwww that is great! I knew he would have everyone admiring his ultra-cuteness!!!!
Have fun 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the set point:
> Sat her up closer. She’s jumping with her head up and not striding into the middle of the set point distance which often seems to be her tendency with set points vs other grids where she gets more motion moving into them.>
I see what you mean here! Try moving the toy before the release – have it attached to something longer so you don’t have to lean over, and be jogging with it on the ground dragging for a few steps before you release her. In this session, it starts moving after she makes her takeoff decision for jump 2, so she is in ‘boing’ mode to pounce on the stationary toy (even though it is moving after she lands). Having it moving before she leaves her sit should change her head position. It might be hard for her to hold a stay with you jogging and dragging a toy, so you can test that out on the flat before adding jumps. Or, you can enlist Dean (thanks, Deanm for volunteering hahahahaha) to gently hold her so she doesn’t have to maintain stay criteria.
>Will have to try the alternating chase games with Kaladin. He’ll be a good sport as long as he gets to chase some too. Of course he may not return super fast either but I’m sure the dogs will have fun.>
Keep me posted! Social learning with this kind of thing can be really fun!
>Sure hope I do see you in August. Pinged Dawn who now says she’s working on the schedule in early June and asked my opinion again on whether I had session preferences. She seems to be leaning towards full day sessions… I told her I didn’t think Lift had enough brains for a full day seminar and maybe the young dog sessions could be half days.>
I agree, half days for young dogs is the way to go. She usually asks my opinion so I will share that 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>I’m trying to do his exercises in the morning -we’re having abnormally warm weather for May (upper 80s). Today is the last warn day before rain and going back to 60ish.>
60s will be nice!!! Good dog training weather!
>We did baby level tunnel threadle. He did pretty well with it. My word is “here” but drawn out “heeeeeere”. I also use the opposite arm.>
You are going to laugh (hopefully) – the wrap on the wing, and tunnel threadle verbal and arm were all perfect except you were doing front crosses instead of threadles 🙂 I blame the heat! LOL!! The FC puts him on the outside, with you between him and the tunnel. The threadle will start with a post turn around the wing, putting him between you and the tunnel.
>I’d say Dellin’s tunnel threadle is still a bit of a work in progress when going full speed on a course and I’ve been using the sprinkler and then “here” for her. I’ve been thinking about using left/right for her and then here, but it does not usually fit my left/right situation and the sprinkler gives me the head turn. This set up was definitely the wrap cue though. Things to ponder…>
Yes – what to say/do *before* threadles can be very context-specific. It might be a wrap cue (like this game) or a soft turn, or a name call, or nothing at all – totally depends on the course. And also getting to know what each individual dog needs is important: Dellin might need Very.Strong.Cues on the jump before a threadle if there is a significant turn, but Judge might only need a casual suggestion of a turn (a very quiet name call). Time will tell, as he gets on bigger and bigger sequences 🙂
Great job with the FCs here 😂🤣 and hopefully you can try the threadle side when you get a chance.
Tracy
