[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I’ll ping pong more and add arousal to backing up. She sometimes barks instead of backing up when super aroused do we’ll work on it more.>>

You can try helping her when she is in a higher arousal state by giving her a destination to back up to, like a low dog bed or something. We can make the behavior easier because the arousal state is so much harder 🙂

The collection sandwich games are looking strong! The first video was super good! There are a LOT of mechanics for us humans in these handling games and so the pups might have to wait on us a bit (which is good for teaching them to be patient with us when we are late in case that ever happens LOL!) but you nailed the mechanics by getting each one really spot on. My only suggestion is to throw the toy sooner for the go go go at the end 🙂

On the 2nd video, the first rep looked really good too an you can totally throw the toy as soon as you finish the pivot (or even as you are finishing the pivot) so she doesn’t look at you are much. You are correct about the toy handling being a challenging part of the mechanics! On the 2nd rep, you had a moment of toy bobble which caused your pivot to be a little later and also faster – so she read it as a blind cross because she lost the connection to your left side. That caused her to cut to your right side like a blind – she didn’t appear to be simply chasing the toy, it was more about the pivot being too quick so she read it as a bind cross instead of a pivot at :44. But you reconnected and then got her to your left to finish strong.

You can toss the treat from further away to start this sandwich 🙂 then you are further ahead when she turns back to you – that creates a good domino effect in the handling: you are further ahead, so that first bin dis sooner which means the decel is sooner which means you have more time to do the slow pivot before throwing the toy forward again. It should feel less like you have to do a zillion things all at once, because being further ahead should give you more time to fit it all in 🙂

Great job! Le me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Hope you had a great weekend!

He is turning REALLY well on the tandem turns (maybe a little better to his right?) and using the MM as a giant cookie bowl worked well!

>> I think I can try letting it dispense now without the beep and see how he does.

Test it separately from any training – first with no beep but the gear grinding (free cookies!) and then try it with the beep (more free cookies!) Don’t bring the noise of it into training until you know for sure that he will love it.

A couple of mechanics details on this session will help smooth out the finding of the line *after* the tandem turn. On the first video (turning right), he seemed to know that it was “drive ahead and look for a thing” but it took him a couple of reps to “see” the prop (the last two reps where really good)! So you can spread out the set up, moving the MM and the prop further apart, so when you are moving back towards the prop after the tandem turn he knows where to look because the prop is the only obvious thing in the environment. You can also warm up at the start of the session with a couple of hits of the prop, so it is “bigger” in the environment as compared to all of the cookie-based things 🙂

Also, before each rep, plan which hand to toss the cookie from and have the cookie in that hand already. When you were moving your hands to get the cookie or switch it from hand to hand, he was watching your hands a lot – because if you say “yes” then he looks at you and watches your hands move the cookie then you throw it… he is going to get reinforcement for watching your hands which means we are going to get more of him watching you 🙂

So have the cookie ready to toss and then reload before the next rep. And, for verbals: don’t say “yes” at all because that marker means “look at me, you are getting cookies from me” (True, we didn’t specifically train it to mean that, but all of our dogs learn it like that because it is how we do our human thing LOL!!) So – don’t say yes for the turn, just be quiet so he knows to keep working and looking for the line. Then, when he hits his prop (or is on the way to it), you can say “get it” and toss the treat. This is all designed to get him looking ahead and not at you 🙂

And if something goes wrong like he turns the “wrong” direction… just assume you were late and either reward in the moment, or go with it and reward the prop hit. For example at :32 on the 2nd video, you were late on the tandem turn cue so he didn’t turn the “correct” direction (even though he was correct). Then he stayed on his line and had a great prop hit…. but was told he was wrong because you called him back and there was no reward. However… he was right! So reward him 🙂 And if you are not sure why it happened, review the video in slow motion before the next rep and you will see the timing difference. Slow motion in-the-moment video reviews are life changing LOL!

The parallel path commitment looked good, he totally transferred the concept immediately! And he will get better at finding the treats 🙂
Two things for the next session:

– no more clicker needed. For the next session, as he is approaching the jump, say get it and toss the treat so ideally it lands before he goes through the uprights.

– while he is finding and eating the treat, you can start moving up the line parallel to the jump – this will allow you to reward him for finding the jump when you are ahead as well! Or, you can move laterally away by a step or two then move up along the parallel line… and that challenges him to find it with a bit of distance!

You can also use wings on this, so he transfers the concept to what will eventually be a wing jump. And since he loves toys, you can throw a toy as well! You won’t get as many reps in with a toy, but that is fine 🙂 It is about quality not quantity 🙂

>>We did some work outdoors in the yard near the tunnel. We played and tugged and chased and retrieved around the tunnel without actually engaging with it. He did run in with his toy but got better about coming out with it.

Good boy! You can turn the tunnel entries down so he can’t offer it when you are playing near it but not actually working on tunnel skills. I don’t allow access to engage with obstacles, unless I actually want the puppy to engage with obstacles.

>>Until he lifted his leg and peed on the opening 😫

Could be the session was too long and he had to pee, or it was a great way for him to get you to end the session. Set a timer for 30 seconds and be finished, especially during higher intensity toy-based sessions.

>>I’ve never kept an intact male before so this will be interesting. My two old guys were both neutered young as that was what was done 13 years ago. He’s good in the house, thank goodness, but he lifts his leg on EVERYTHING outdoors, and I mean everything. He lifted his leg on his toy! Yuk!! Any suggestions would be welcome.>>

Intact males are AWESOME – stable, lovely, smart, charming boys that grow up to be gifted athletes AND momma’s boys. I have 3 intact males and I will tell you that they are a helluva lot easier than my girl dogs LOL! If he is lifting his leg on leash walks? Fine, no problem, that is fine. If he is loose in the yard and on his own? Then it is fine to lift his leg, he just doesn’t know what we humans think he should or should not lift his leg on yet. So, don’t have toys or agility obstacles out there for any potential leg lifting. He will figure it out, and structure during the teenage months really helps.

If he is leaving training to lift his leg? That is likely a session that is too long, or too hard – so set a timer, turn on the video, do short exciting bursts then be finished and take him for a sniffari before returning for another session. It is worth working through his questions about where to pee, because adult intact males are soooooo wonderful 🙂

Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Hope you had a great weekend!!!

She is allowed to have an opinion about the sit LOL!! You can totally help her with a hand cue and more decel so she gets it – it is a great little game to keep organization fresh and as a conditioning game. I have found that getting a hand cue and adding a cookie in position at the beginning stages helps (helps a little LOL) She did well but she might need a reward in position for the sit so you don’t get any downs.

>> I quickly went on to the other option and she did great!

Totally agree, she thought it was great fun!! And did really well too!

>>I did a couple without the organizer and I think her takeoff was a little different without out… let me know what you think!>>

I played it in slow motion to watch her takeoff spots – they were basically identical and very close to each other in form and proximity to the bar. Any tiny difference might be because the plank is slightly elevated (versus just being on grass). On the very last rep, she was coming in a from a different angle so yes, there was a difference there – but that is because of the angle and not because of any organization questions.

Overall, she looks great so you can keep the plank in and add more of your motion, including decel and rotation as well as keeping the wrap cue (I think you were using it but it is a quiet cue 🙂 so it was hard to tell)

Great job!!!! You can add the fading progression to the backside wraps too!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! She did really well on both of these!!!

On both the disc and the wobble board, she looked really happy to get her whole body on. Yay!!!

2 small tweaks to add to this which should make moving forward very easy:

– When using the disc, stabilize it between your feet so when she leaps off for the cookie, it doesn’t slide out from under her. We don’t want her to splat herself, and we don’t want her to get cautious if the disc will unpredictably slide away.

– when you reward her, have your cookie delivery be lower – deliver the treat so that her lower jaw is parallel to the ground, and she is looking forward and not up at all (her head should be a little above her shoulder in a neutral position: not looking up, not looking down, just looking straight when the treat gets delivered). This will set up a better balance for her hind end. When she was looking way up for the treat, she was losing her balance on her hind end. Then she would get a little cautious on the wobble board, because it was not totally secure to have her head lifting up so she was not sure how to handle her hind end.

>>I need to add noise but it may be a bit much.>>

Are you seeing any noise sensitivity in her life or training? You can add a tile bit of noise, but she is entering adolescence where the pup will be a lot more sensitive to noise or weird things (because that is how their brains are developing right now) – so proceed with tie as much caution as you think she needs 🙂 For example, you can bring the wobble board to a noisy surface but then add 500 towels under it so there is only the tiniest bit of noise added. Then you can oh-so-gradually fade the towels out, watching to see if she gets sensitive to any noise or movement.

Remember that time is on your side for this – the noise is a part of the teeter and flyball box training, but she doesn’t need to do that til she is basically an adult! So we have sooooo much time to gradually introduce the noise) which also helps us survive canine adolescence LOL!!!!!)

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I am glad your back is feeling better!!!

>>This was HAAAAARD!!! I honestly can’t see any handling combos with decel or pivots happening with this any time soon! >>

Unless you edited out a lot of failures, this was a really high success rate session – I think there was only one rep where she skipped the barrel and went to the toy. So overall, it might have been uncomfortable but it went well (or you need to leave the failures in the video LOL!!)

Two adjustments to make which will set her up to be even more successful:

– rather than start her close to the barrel and throw the toy, you can set the toy down where you want it, then bring her to the barrel with cookies or another toy. The throw was REALLY hard for her, because throw toys are exciting and she probably has a reinforcement history of chasing the thrown toy in the yard. So placing the toy will make it so much easier, and then you can reward her for moving with you by using cookies or toys.

– when you get to the barrel, do less ‘ready ready’ and more “ready set wrap’ 🙂 You were repeating the ready cue of a long time and she was like “yes I am ready why do you keep asking” LOL!!!! I think you were waiting for her to look at the barrel maybe? But she doesn’t need to – as long as she is not staring at the toy, you can start the game. When you said ready ready for to long, she would either try to start but get pulled back (which is confusing: mom, do you want the barrel or not?) or she would just look away til you let go, or the one rep where she skipped the barrel had a lot of ready ready before it.

So a 2 or 3 second ready is about as long as you want to take. Towards the end of the video, the toy landed at 2:29 and you did the ready ready ready until 2:46 when you let her go – that is longer than an entire Novice JWW run LOL!!! So just say it once and if she is NOT looking at the toy, let go and send to the barrel.

When your back feels safe for it, you can add the FC and the decals. When you add that, you can start with a toy in your hand and an empty food bowl out on the line (instead of a thrown toy) to help set her up for success. But I bet she will quickly be able to transition to the toy on the ground 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Who’d’a guessed *I* would jump on doing the RC homework first? 😉

HA! Because it is so fun!!!!

>> So then her first rep in a box we got the dreaded rear feet together leap 😲

No worries, I think that was just because you were moving a lot on that rep.

>>She did even better with intro to the mat. But she was looking up at the click consistently

Yes, one of the hardest parts of the clicker is that they want to look at us (reflexively, it is just how the clicker ends up being conditioned) and then if we are throwing treats we are often not quick enough to get the treat out after the click and before the dog looks at us. So you can totally replace the click with a ‘get it’ which will get less looking at you because it implies the placement and it doesn’t have the conditioned response as the clicker so they are less likely to look at us.

>> so I went to a TnT on one end and dropping a treat in a bowl on the other. Finally decided to get my treat closer and low down to slow her down and keep her head low and forward.>>

The TnT definitely helped. The treats in the bowl were more of a reset for her, which is also fine! What I would add is attaching the mat to something slightly elevated that is pretty solid, maybe 2 or 3 inches off the ground. That way she makes a VERY distinct movement onto it, and then you can mark the 2nd back foot (it was hard to tell what the clicks were for sometimes, but that is fine at this stage: click for general interaction then we eventually narrow it to 2nd rear foot hit).

By attaching the mat to something she can step up onto, you can sit and just stare at the mat 🙂 And click the MM or toss a treat to the bowl or hand it to her off to the side. Something like this, but bigger:

I had Elektra on a small target here to add challenge and isolate footwork more, but she was a little older here than Prytty – so with Prytania you will want a really big target so it is very very easy to get allllll feet on it 🙂

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Another really nice concept transfer session here!

The first forward sends looked good. It took you a moment to sort out the sideways sending but you got it at 1:08 and he was perfect (also perfect when you changed sides
don’t block the barrel). If he goes around the barrel as you sort out the sending, you can still reward him (like at :53) because he was correct to read the indication to the barrel, even if it was not 100% why you intended.

His commitment on the backwards sending also looked great! When you send backwards (and sideways too, but definitely backwards), remember to shift your connection to look back to where he would be landing if it was a jump rather than look at him. So as your arm and leg point back to the barrel, your eyes should follow your hand and look at the barrel too and not at him 🙂 For example, you looked at him at 1:58 and 2:36, and he was a little unsure of if he should go past you to the barrel. Compare that to 2:24, where you looked back behind you almost immediately, so he moved to the barrel really smoothly and without questions. Yay!

Great job!!! You can add a little bit of countermotion to this, moving away from the barrel as he passes you to get to it.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! This looks really good!!

he has great commitment on this parallel path line!! He is looking forward for the most part (and not looking at you). I think he was a little better looking forward on your right side, so you can click/toss the treat sooner when he is on your left. You can also get rid of the clicker and just use your era ‘get it’ when he is looking forward, because the clicker often gets the dogs to look at us a bit.

Since he did so well here, you can add a little more lateral distance – when you toss the start cookie, you can be 2 or 3 feet away from the jump on the parallel line. And if he can still find the commitment with you moving parallel a few feet away, then you can add even more distance over the course of a couple of sessions 🙂 Have fun! Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Omg, this looks so good! He is doing such a nice job looking for his destination with his back feet! That is a very mature behavior for a baby dog! He was perfect with the flat target, and of course the disc was a little harder but he was still great. Yay!

The next thing to add to this is a little more excitement – the goal is to see if he can still use his back feet this well when he is more excited (thinking ahead to him needing to remember his jumping form or weaving when he is VERY excited in the agility ring :)) So starting with the flat target, get him excited with the toy or with chasing a few cookies… then go into the back up mode you did here and reward him even if it is not perfect. It is hard for baby dogs to remember to use their bodies well when they are excited, so this is a good next-step to begin to build that up.

Great job! Enjoy your weekend!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

He definitely has value for his prop!!! He was moving ahead of you for it, but I think he was slowing himself down so he would not get too far from the cookie hand. That made the rear crosses a little harder, so the only thing this game needs now is to throw the rewards. Thrown rewards will make it much easier for you both. On the next session, no more cookies for your hands for this 🙂 All rewards can be thrown, so if you are in the grass, use a big white cookie or something that is easy to see or grab. That will get him racing ahead of you to the prop… which then gives you a lot more time to get the rear crosses going 🙂 If the cookies are too hard in the grass, you can use a small toy that is easy to throw, then reward him for bringing it back.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

HI!

He is definitely getting the idea! Super!!! Both directions are good, but he is a bit more comfortable turning to his right than to his left right now, I think – so for the next session, do all the reps to his right (starting on your left) – and now when he exits the wrap, you can run and play with a toy, rather than stop and feed cookies. The toy play in the 2nd video looked great, so you can add it to the turn and burn now 🙂

The other thing that will help is if you always start in the same spot, relative to the cone – that way, he will have an easier time remembering to go around it. You were changing your starting spot so he had a few questions.

He wants to put his feet on the edge of the cone – do you have a barrel to use instead, so he doesn’t offering touching it? That can help him understand to keep moving and not try to touch the cone.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
First of all…Thank you for posting it!! He looks amazing, there is NOTHING to worry about, and any questions he had here were just a matter of clarifying your cues as you learn to work with this new baby speedster. He is also a pretty level-headed dude, which is great!!

Since you said “have at it” LOL!!! I think you are worried about struggles from previous dogs and you are micromanaging SB… which is confusing to him and also resulting in you telling him is wrong way too much. He reads you beautifully and so any errors were confusion issues where you wanted one thing and you didn’t cue what you wanted.

As a puppy, he cannot help you out or save you – so from now on, if something goes wrong, I want you to reward it as if it was correct rather than withhold or tell him he is wrong. Because… he was 100% correct on all of these, even the ones where you told him he was wrong. If you are not sure what happened: review the video frame by frame before the next rep (we are doing that at a seminar today and it is a THING OF BEAUTY :))

So here is what I see:
The first couple of reps of just barrel wraps all looked good!

When you added in the bowl… you were saying get it but also decelerating in your physical cue, so that is where some of the confusion was happening. Bearing in mind that the get it verbal is not as strong as the decel cue in terms of natural understanding, so he was going to the bowl so on those first reps, he was learning that even with decel, you go to the bowl because you were not really moving (you were either standing relatively still or decelerated a lot and sent, or just decelerated).

So then at :39 it made total sense why he thought it was a send to the bowl: in your mind, you wanted decel but the physical cue was exactly the same as when you wanted him to go to the bowl… so he was like, “wait, what?” Then at :52, you decelerated (really far from the bowl) and wanted him to go to the bowl: big confusion because sometimes you wanted the bowl, sometimes you wanted him to decel to you…

So easy answer: when you want him to drive to something, you need to RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN to it. Eventually you will be able to transition into a decel and send but that is not this game and he is not ready yet for the physical cues to look that much the same. (You also had a lot of decel later in the session, like at 1:11 and 1:22, so he had big questions).

Using the barrel: do the FC, and run run run run to the bowl if you want the bowl. Or send to the barrel, do the FC, and decelerate if you want him to come to you. Make it very very different because that is what he is relying on: the black and white difference between acceleration and deceleration.

And you need to reward All.The.Things 🙂 in these handling games because errors are handling errors, especially if he is asking questions like at :52. And if he is not perfect? Reward anyway – at 1:02, he asked if you wanted decel and not the bowl (even though the cues looked pretty similar) but you didn’t reward (maybe because he was not tight enough?) but it was a VERY rewardable behavior because it was a closer approximation to what you want – and he had just asked a lot of questions and told he wears wrong, so find the way to tell him he is right 🙂

Speaking of telling him was right: on the FCs at 1:15 and 1:23, you were late (really late :)) getting the FC done, his decision on which line was already made, so he was correct. Compare to the timing at 1:01, when you were earlier and he was wicked tight coming around that barrel! He got a verbal correct each time you were late… I want to you go with it if he ends up on the wrong side, tell him he was right and reward, then go watch the video frame by frame before the next rep to see the timing. For example, at 1:30, you started the FC as he arrived at the barrel so you completed it much earlier, so he picked up the correct side. Compare it to 1:23 where you were way late getting that FC completed (he was already exiting the barrel). it might not seem late to us humans because we can see him… but he needs to see the full cue and process it in order to do it, so we need to be pretty early!

So – no more verbal corrections and no more pulling him off the line, because he was correct and confident, you were late 🙂 By correcting him and pulling him off the line, you are adding confusion and getting questions, which we don’t want of course 🙂

One other detail: he does not like being lifted into position like at :57 to line up, so use a cookie lure to line him up instead.

Let me know if this all makes sense. Don’t worry about any past dogs or how tight he is turning – he is doing AMAZINGLY well and all things happen so fast with him, that it will be easy to have a handling error. That is what video is SO useful and that is also why you should reward everything 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> There won’t be any scratching at home because he doesn’t wear his collar at home and he HATES wearing a collar !>>

Well that makes sense as to why it was a little stressful for him! You were asking him to process cues in a new environment, while something new & weird was around his neck. We need that collar to be something he does not have to process…. so he needs to wear a collar at home. Have him wear it as much as possible at home when you are supervising and playing… just make it a normal thing that fades into the background, so his brain doesn’t have to process it in a new environment.

He is definitely making progress with the backing up! Yay! It took a rep or two to figure out the mechanics but then you made it clear and he was beginning to get it. So definitely keep going down this path – my only suggestion is to have your cookie ready otherwise it takes too long to get it from your other hand to then reward him – so the reward ends up coming for him standing still looking at you 🙂 (everything happens SO FAST with terriers, as you know LOL!)
So you can have 2 cookies in your hand: one to drop in between your knees, then the 2nd one for backing away. And moving away from the cookie in your hand is also a really good self-control game 🙂 because he has to move away from the cookie to get the cookie 🙂

For the wing wrapping… he is getting the idea here too! At the start of each session, use the bowls as targets rather than cookies from your hands. That will really help him do the behavior without looking up at you as much or getting frozen. He got some good reps going later in the session, so you can start the session with the bowls (or plates that you used previously :)) then move them back behind you to fade them a bit. You can keep the bowls in this game until you can be be standing up, then we will switch to the rewards from your hands.

The 3rd video was the backing up video posted again (not the toy video) so feel free to repost the toy video!

Great job! Enjoy your weekend!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

It sounds like you are doing the right things with the puppy class – it is really only for distraction training at first, because it will be really hard to learn new stuff at first 🙂 But it is a great opportunity to get him into that type of environment! And food motivation is a GOOD thing because it helps a lot in that environment (and the toy play will come roaring back when he is done teething and when he is used to being in group classes :))

Yes, the cookie pattern games are the resilience games – they build up in 3 steps. I use these games to get my pups used to new environments. My whippet pup has a working spot in a seminar this weekend and I believe there will be something like 50 auditors… and yes, I will be playing his pattern games as soon as we get into the environment 🙂

I am so glad he had a good time in the barn!!! And letting him sniff around a bit if fine because it allows him to investigate the environment before “work”. The short fast barrel game was awesome!!!! He was actually faster than he is at home, and look at how he is bending through the turn – so nice! And I also love that as soon as you put the barrel down, he came running over and immediately engaged with the game. YES!

He was keen to party with the toy, but not quite tug at the beginning of the 2nd video. So chasing you and the squeaky worked well, then throwing it got a lot of engagement! He didn’t quite retrieve it on the first couple of reps but also he didn’t run away with it, and he tugged! And lovely drive ahead! And look at the very end of the video: he is getting comfortable with the environment and the toy play, and he retrieved the toy to you at 1:10. Good boy! Be sure to play when he does that, throw the toy around a bit more, to encourage more of that 🙂

Good job using a napkin as the threadle target LOL!!! It looked like the normal target so he was perfect. More importantly, look at his offered engagement all the way through this session. By bringing in an easy game and a high value reward, he was easily able to both be super engaged AND produce great responses to the cues. I am really excited by how he looks here! Yes, the threadle looked good (nice mechanics on your part!) but I am MORE excited by his engagement and happy attitude here. And click/treat to you for short, fun sessions.

Looking at the blind cross session: I think you made a good choice to just play. If this was the last session, he might have been a little brain tired (engaging is exhausting!). I know you do great blinds, so it was not important for you to practice. It was more important for him to learn about the environment and how to chase the toy and not sniff. Excellent choice to switch motivators and run run run…. then be done.

So overall – you made a zillion excellent training decisions here and he looked fabulous! Any dog training facility is going to have soooooo many good smells and distractions, so I loved seeing him be so engaged here! The skills also look great, but that is going to be a natural by-product of all of the decisions you are making about getting play and making it fun without pressure. I am sending you a cyber high-five!!!!!

Great job! Enjoy your weekend!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

What is that white stuff on the ground? Ewwww!! Any time you want to make a road trip south, we still have green stuff!! I confess that I chuckled seeing you wack the snow off your boots with the hollee roller LOL!

Her commitment looks super solid – you were a little too early at :35 (she hadn’t reached the halfway point) – so you waited one extra heartbeat to give her a couple more inches on the next rep and she was perfect on that rep and all the reps after it when you did the FC at the same timing.

I don’t mind the error, though… there was only one error, you made an adjustment, then she was perfect. That was a ‘good’ error in two ways: it was a resilience moment of “that was unexpected” and note how she did not get frustrated or bark or anything, she just reset and tried again. And, operantly, it was a good moment of “this does not get the toy” versus all of the other reps where you were like “this is what gets the toy.” So look at 1:33 and 1:42 (the last 2 reps) – you were doing the FC and running the other way before she even got to the barrel. And all of it was done in high arousal. Super!!!

3 suggestions for you for next time:
– you were throwing the toy, and ideally we would have her drive to you for the reward (because wraps get the best collection when here is handler “chase” after them, for now). The throwing might have been that you were trying to run in the snow though, so having her chasing you for the toy might be better in the barn if you can get her there.

– try not to block the line to the barrel, especially when she is in your left side. You were standing on her running line, so she had to go wider to find the barrel. Move over a step or two so she has a straight, tight line to the barrel.

– add your wrap verbals. Start this by having her next to you, wearing a collar. Hold her collar, say the verbal cue a few times, then let her go and start the game (keep saying the verbal cue). That will let her hear the verbal before motion gets involved, and it will also make for cleaner starts (she wanted to be out away from you to start, and being in closer will allow you to set up better lines when this game goes crazier 🙂

Great job here!!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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