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Hi!
He looked great here! The Go lines looked really strong!
The placed reward is valuable for him on the Go lines – he drives almost all the way there to jump 2 without it, but the placed reward gets it done the rest of the way. So for now, have the reward placed out there as a focal point when workong at full distances.The other option to fade the placed reward on the Go line is to move the 2 jumps in closer together. Wth super low bars, put the 2 jumps 8 feet apart, then 10 feet… and so on til you build back up to competition distance. Doing that, you can throw the reward when he lands from the first one and is looking at hte 2nd jump, so the reward lands pretty early.
>> I wanted to try a wrap on the second jump coming that direction and watching the video, it looks like I didn’t decelerate to cue the turn. Is that accurate?>>
Correct – at :58 you were just beginning to decelerate and he was already jumping the 2nd jump, going straight, good boy. When that happens – either keep going or just reward immediately, rather than resend.The resending conveys that there was an error (but from his perspective, there was no error because he responded correctly) and also with the resending there is always some confusion (like when he spun instead of taking the jump). So it is better to just continue in that moment then fix it later on. You did a great job carrying on at 1:16 when you got the accidental rear cross:
>> Also, what did I do that cued the rear cross on the next rep?
It looks like there was some pressure in instead of forward facing decel, which he read as a rear cross cue – and plus rght is his stronger side, yes? So he might have been thinking something needed to happen but wasn’t sure what, so defaulted to the stronger side.
>>So, I tried a few different things, but they weren’t the right things lol. I decided to finish up with a straight go in the other direction and end it there.
It was good to finish on the straight line, that looked great! You can try a couple of things on the left wrap – try it by facing forward longer and doing a decel but not trying to be on time with the rotation. And he is still struggles to wrap left, you can take the bar and the other wing out to do a refresher with wrapping just the wing.
Teeter backing up: he is doing well here! You don’t need to reward him in position – you can mark the backing up then have him come forward to get the cookie… which gets more backing up after he gets the cookie LOL! You can add a little more height to the board here, to add a little more challenge.
Great job on these!
TracyHi!
>> I could see Artie was slowing down (probably because of all my errors!) so I gave Maewyn a shot
Maewyn is always welcome to come play! One thing about the errors though… don’t stop for errors – just carry on as if they were fully intended to be that way. If you stop and re-start, even if she gets a cookie, Artie might get careful or get tired or both. So… no stopping! Errors are handling errors, so no need to stop, you can get her back on a line and keep going. Doing that is also great pracice for keeping things together when there is a little bobble on course at a trial 🙂
I think these went well overall! The Package 3 walk through work will help even more with the first run, best run theme.
One thing I notice about these runs is that you say each verbal only once, for the most part, and the verbal is very short… so she is really relying on the physical cues. That might be contributing to her watching you a lot. Definitely add more verbals in general. Repeat them a LOT, don’t just say things once – repetition will help her process them and not have to look at you, just like how you repeated the verbals in the independent weaving section on course 1!
Course 1
I like the blind in the opening! Trust her commitment more and trust your line more: you can start the BC earlier. As soon as she lands from 1, you can begin the BC. At :02 and 1:09 an 1:29 you started it as she was one stride from takeoff, which means the decision was made (which is why she was wide on landing). You were a stride earlier at :56 but I think you can be even earlier by seeing her land then start the blind.The layering to the tunnel worked well!
One thing to definitely plan more of is saying the tunnel exit cue before she enters, You were too quiet at :08. You got the nice early left at 1:01 but then forgot the blind. At 1:33, you did a landing side RC but I think she had a lot of questions, so the BC after the tunnel is the best bet 🙂She didn’t take the tunnel at 1:12 – this is Mae, right? I think Artie has better independent skills which is why when you tried to cue something and leave, Maewyn did some unexpected things LOL!
The tunnel – out – tunnel section in the middle looked great each time!
On the 10-11-12 line – you were not very connected at :19 on the push cue and your motion was towards the front, so she did not respond to the verbal (and she only heard it once). When that happens, just keeping going as if it was correct, then fix it on the next run. That will keep her running fast and happy!
On the 2nd round through there, great independent weaves! If you are going to stand still on the landing side of the next jump… you need to wait a pretty long time to be sure she has made the turn and also as you move forward with all that countermotion, look back behind you to the landing side and keep repeating the jump cue. The sudden explosion of motion with you looking at her pulled her off the jump, because she was still pretty far from it.
Course 2: This was mostly perfect!
The opening looked great here! Try to layer in the opening, to work the distance skills and also put you in a position closer o the jump/tunnel discrimination.A bit spot where she slowed down here was at 16. You were decelerating a lot and pointing forward to the jump, which closed your shoulder forward. so there was not enough connection at :39 & 1:29. You did give her a quiet ‘hup’ but she was slowing down to be sure – so start the hup sooner (as she is over the previous bar), repeat it several times, and keep your arm back/eyes on her eyes so she can see the connection better.
The only other detail is if you are going to blind after the poles. be sure to reconnect very strongly with your arm back and eyes on her eyes so she takes the last jump. On the 2nd run, you kept her on your right and she was perfect there.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>These were fun! Both fluffballs nailed it the first time.
YES! That is the goal! Nail it the first time (and see if there are any areas for improvement in the walk or run for future courses).
>>Glad I watched your demo video first. I originally had too much layering on the brain and was going to run down the opposite side of the tunnel while they did jumps 6&7, but that probably wouldn’t have worked well when they were coming out of the wrap on 5.>>
You can totally freestyle your own handling and layering! I put the demos in for handing ideas but there are plenty of options. These demos were mainly to see where my walk through prep was good and where it was not so good 🙂
Kaladin: Great job with the walk through! The handling choices were clear and the verbals were VERY clear.
One thing to add to your rehearsal: Add more connection all the way through. You were disconnected from your invisible dog on the release from 1 where you released then looked forward (he would land behind you, not ahead of you haha). You can also add more connection on the exit of the 5 backside to send to 6, and also the
ending line of 9-10-11. These spots did not hurt you in the run at all, but it is good to be super connected all the way through because then it becomes habit. The #1 mistake in agility is disconnection, so the more it is a habit, the less likely we are to disconnect.The run looked great – you had all the connections in the opening and exit of 5 here, but I will keep bugging you to rehearse the connections there anyway to really get the habit engrained perfectly.
You had plenty of time on the 5-6-7 line before 9, you even added a flappy tappy because I think you were there so early you didn’t know what to do hahaha He was moving plenty fast, but he had a lot of yardage to cover so that is good to remember: make sure you take the yardage into account on the big sending moments – you have plenty of time to get where you need to be.
You had a little disconnection at the end – it didn’t hurt you here, but I will keep bugging you to connect as much as possible all the way through.Min’s walk & run also looked good! You were a little more connected to her (especially on the exit of 5). Running off the line meant that she was already ahead, so your connection there was correct as compared to Kaladin’s where he would have been behind you on the lead out.
She also had a lot of yardage on the 6-7-8 line, so you had plenty of time there too to position for the tunnel exit. Interestingly, at :13 on the walk through and at :40 on the run, you scooted past the tunnel exit on the blind and deceled there (a bit of a hand punch on the walk through, and a flappy tappy on the run) – that was actually too much turn cue for her – you said “right right” on the run and she almost didn’t take 9. So you can totally move forward into those lines for her because she can turn really well on the tunnel exits.
Great job here! Onwards to sequence 2!
Tracy
Good morning!
Kaladin: He is doing really well on a really hard skill!! Extra credit to him, because for most of these he had to drive towards Nemo in your hand then turn away from Nemo in your hand (HARD!!!)
>> but just look at him pounce on a nearly dead Nemo when I dropped it behind me>>
That was hilarious!!
He had a high rate of success, only a couple of questions from him:
At :08 when he went to the other side of the wing, the verbal release and movement and hand cue happened all at once, so he didn’t process it.
The other successes early on had a stop in movement at first , then the cue, then the release. Then you added movement and the cue, before the release, and he was great on all of those.
His only other question was at :49 where he really wanted to push away to the other side – he might have been trying to turn towards you to look at Nemo? Hard to know exactly, but you can totally mix in rewards for coming to the correct side of the wing to maintain that value for the ‘come in’ element of the threadle.
Min did really well too, especially because it is not a skill she was “raised” on – but she was really driving around that wing at the beginning, especially for treats!!
Then… SO JUDGEY WHEN IT WAS THE TOY AND NOT FOOD DURING LUNCH, though hahahahahahaha
It can all be food from your hands at this point for her, she did her best/fastest work when food was in play. Her questions and severe judgements might be because the ball triggers a response where the dogs expect it to be thrown forward, so she had a little trouble driving in and turning away from it.
>>I feel like I can keep working on this “for fun”, but when the chips are down, I had better have worked on my own sprinting to get ahead and handle these situations some other way.
I used to be totally on board with that… but I think we need to train the patootie out of this skill now because the judges are making it nearly impossible to run courses without it, even for the fast running handlers like you. The small/medium EO courses coming through today are requiring that skill. (I personally think the courses are disappointingly crunchy for the smalls/mediums so far).
>>And in answer to your earlier question about fading the wing, that’s the only wing I have that fits next to my weave pole base.>>
hmmmm maybe a pool noodle zip tied to the 2nd pole? Then you can fade it by cutting in it half and then into quarters, etc.
Great job here! Onwards to the one and done sequences!
TracyGood morning!
Ugh, that stinks about the seminar, I hope she has a very mild case. I guess it is our new normal.
On the video:
I think he enjoyed the tunnel game here, both with and without the a-frame in the picture – run through a tunnel, get a cookie LOL! He was juts fine with the angles too, which is great because taller dogs sometimes struggle with harder angles. Easiest thing ever and he was happy to offer more 🙂To prevent the extra tunnels, you can line him up with a reset cookie at your side so he sticks with you rather than offers another tunnel. You can do the same reset when you have the a-frame there – the good news is that he loves doing the obstacles, so we can convince him NOT to do them til cued by using a reset cookie at your side.
I am not sure he needs the target plate anymore for these, especially because you had to go over to it to put the cookie on it. I don’t think he is using it as a focal point, so you can switch to throwing a reward (like a lotus ball) so he can get rewarded independently while you move away to wherever the next line would be, without you needing to go put the cookie on the plate.
Great job here!!! It is fun to see him looking so fast & confident 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>The perfectionist in me is conflicted, lol!!
Ha! Agility is a really imperfect sport LOL! It is messy and on the edge… which is why we don’t need to get these courses to run perfectly, we just need to glean information about what to work on so the next set of courses (especially at trials) goes even better 🙂 And because there is a fatigue element (physical and mental), we can’t keep going (handler or dog). Plus, with training courses… they don’t really ever run perfectly because they are so hard. We leave the perfect runs for trials 🙂
These were good sessions here on the courses! I think 2 main themes stood out, in terms of skills to work on:
– the dog training skill of sending to tunnels while you layer
– the handling skill of connecting after a crosshere is more about that and other stuff too 🙂 Lots of great work here!!
Course 2 –
At the beginning: on the FC & BC training section, a small detail that can make a big difference at full speed: when you are doing the FC, keep your new dog-side arm extended back to her, fingers pointed to her nose to open up the connection. You were closing your shoulder forward and keeping your arm at your side – so even though your eyes were on her, she is not as likely to see the connection when coming in full speed. She is looking at shoulders more than seeing your eyes. You can see that when you were moving fast at 2:34, she went wide. More on that below.Same thing on the backside circle push: your arm should be back to her, letting her find the wing: and if she sees the wing, she should go around it, no extra help needed from your shoulders pr motion – it is hard to see from the video here, but it looks like the extra motion and shoulders were pushing her into the tunnel. When you had less shoulder help at 1:07 and 1:20 and 1:36, for example, she did a lot better with finding the wing
On the full run:
The opening looked really good, all the way through the weaves! Yay!
After the weaves: I think the tunnel send with the layering is in the one-more-step category, and lots of reward at the tunnel exit for going. She was on her way but then lost confidence that she was correct to keep going when you were peeling away. It is more of a dog training moment than a handling moment, so more tunnel sends with a throw reward in these layering moments will help convince her that she is correct. She just needs more experience on that skill.
For the BC after the dog walk – with the added speed, we can see how the closed shoulder doesn’t give her enough info. Freeze the video at 2:32 as she lands from the jump after the DW: you can see that your right arm is at your side which closes the shoulder forward, so her only info is motion (and verbal). So even though you are looking at her, you are not connected – because connection is a handling cue, where the dog sees center of the handler’s chest, which is showing the line. So to get the connection, we change your arm position – as you exit the cross, point your dog side arm all the way back to her nose, it will be fully extended behind you and away from your side.
She did a great job finding the backside, yay!!! And the little spin before the a-frame was caused by the same thing as her question after the dog walk: dog side arm forward, so she did not see which line to be connected to. That is another spot where you can have your dog side arm all the way back to her nose 🙂
Course 1:
You had a bar down at 2 in the beginning – you can do the blind sooner, basically as soon as she exits the tunnel and you see she is looking at 2 – a slightly longer lead out will get you there sooner.The tunnel layering here was hard for her – so that is a good skill set to pop out of these courses or any of the courses – find the tunnel for layering and reward reward reward with a thrown reward. She gets very close to the tunnel then second-guesses herself a bit.
For the FC at 11, looks like you got stuck behind the wing of the jump after it at :44 so you can either be further past the wing of the FC jump, or use your out cue to get the tunnel on that line.
From the stationary start, there was not enough momentum to get the frame as a layered obstacle, but she would probably get it coming in with full speed!
After the frame – I think you were saying “right” at 1:22 but it is a left 🙂 And as with the line after the DW in the other course, this is a good spot to open up your dog-side arm behind you and let her see more of your shoulders.
For the big ending line – I think you left out the 17 tunnel which made it harder to get up the ending line ahead of you. Since she will curl in on a go line unless you outrun her, you can place the reward past 21 so she can continue to drive ahead even if you lose steam.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
This looked really lovely! The angles definitely helped him so you could just keep moving. It looks like you had a little shoulder ‘dip’ too, which is great!
For the next session, 2 suggestions:
– open the angles up again so they are easier, so you can run faster 🙂 We are going to want to work up to full speed before making the angles tight or flat. For now, you can be running faster (same serp form with the upper body) and let him see you between the uprights, which can be accomplished by running closer to the tunnel to start. Then you can get further and further ahead (might take several sessions) so eventually you are a step or two past the serp jump (and he still serps it).– add verbals! Which verbals you add are up to you. You can call his name, or use a jump verbal, or use left/right verbals. But serps definitely need some verbals so now is the perfect time to add them.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
>> Yes, Kenme is a general “take a jump and turn a little” cue and the left and right are the L shaped turns.
Sounds good! And of course, we can add handling to match the verbals.
>>Please continue nagging me about my intonations, I like your suggestions about tunneltunneltunneltunnel, and more “corre”, please continue reminding me (you have my full permission hahaha). I am getting better, and I am now remembering on course if I am mot giving them a bit of more different intonations.>>
You are totally getting better! It is something that I know you are good at because you have done it in the past, so I am happy to keep nagging hahaha
>> I like that verbal for this type of discriminations, if I say Left, it could also be tunnel, but with Shasha he should now it is not the tunnel, makes sense?
It depends on what ‘left’ means, specifically. For me, left is too tight of a turn to mean tunnel, so I would use left there. To get the tunnel, I would either say tunnel or ‘jump’ which is probably similar to Kenme.
>>Are the Plyo exercises you mentioned to me before part of the LYD Camp 2022? (I have not looked at package 3 yet).
They are coming in Package 4 🙂
>>BTW, I did not get an email for your comments today
That is odd! Check your spam box – it might be in there. If the ‘email notification of replies’ box if checked, it might be in the spam box.
Tracy
The mountain climber game looks good too! There is more tip to it and more noise, so he is slowing down ever so slightly before reaching the end. With that in mind, don’t add more tip for now – leave it where it is for a few sessions til he runs all the way to the end. You can also put a towel over the noisy metals parts to reduce the rattling – it is hard to tell if the noise was from the teeter assist or the teeter itself, so a towel on the teeter assist will help, and a tunnel sand bag on the base of the teeter will keep it quieter and also prevent the rebounding/whip that it is doing as he arrives at the top (you can see it bouncing up and down a bit).
From a handling perspective, keep walking past the end of the board, try not to stop when he stops. Do several more steps past the board when he arrives at the top so he stops before you do, to help give him the sense of what the future independence will be 🙂
Great job on these!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The first session of the bang game went well, in terms of the lazy game transfer. By standing, you were drawing his head up so keep getting that reward in super low so he looks down to the target (produces better form). Since this went so well, you can do one or two reps of this in the next session to refresh the skill then move to the advanced level, where you are both at the side of the teeter and he leaps into position.Great job! Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, it was a little hard to see exactly what he was doing, but looks like he did really well – getting right back into the 2o2o position. Is the 2o2o your future dog walk position? If so, you can consider moving the foot target a tiny bit further from the end of the board, so he is a little more stretched forward (just an inch or two) because that will create better form on the dog walk. The teeter position as a 4on should be right at the end of the board, targeting on the board not off of it.
Nice work!
TracyYes, you can shorten the tugging time. Also, I’ve found that with some dogs, tossing the toy and letting them run around with it a bit helps too! I use a “go for a run” cue when I do that 🙂
Using low value food and high value toys in the same session also helps, if she will keep playing with the toy.
Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>>, I’m raising it to 16/20 on the set point
Sounds good – try 14, then 16, then 18 then 20 in successive sessions.
>>She was humping the air/me.
Oh dear! LOL!!! Were things going really well, or lots of toy play, or errors? I am trying to figure out why she got so stimulated.
>>Teeter-Actually sorry editing-She was worried on the 1st then got more comfortable.
Great! You can definitely still weight the board to reduce the whip/rebound of it, especially as you add more height.
Tracy
I totally feel your pain about the heat! It has been a crazy hot summer! I am not ready for winter, though hahahaha
