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Hi! So much great stuff here on this run (and also on the jumping run below!)
Reinforcing the contacts was excellent, it will really help her put it all together!
Most of the run was really excellent! I have a few ideas for you – a main trend on this course and n the jumping course is to give her turn verbal (or go verbal) *before* she enters the tunnel, and repeat the verbal. You tend to get quiet and that causes her to look at you on the exits a lot.
Opening – Looking good! You can get a smoother line if you set her on more of a slice facing 2 – less handling for you to show her jump 2, and then you can get past the exit wing of 3 better to show the line to the teeter.
The teeter looked great!!
The tunnel-jump-tunnel line – the verbal info was late so she was looking at you. This is where you can give lots more info before and during tunnel moments: tell her to GO before she enters the tunnel at :18, then start your jump cue while she is in it, then tell her to get into the next tunnel when she is halfway between the first tunnel and the jump 🙂
She had a question about the RDW here – it is good to get on her on different one! I liked her general striding a little better on the first one – she lost her balance a bit on the 2nd one even though the hit was a little better.
At :39 to the 12 tunnel: this section cracked me up – the people on video were asking why they didn’t FC, I was asking why you didn’t blind cross LOL! The FC to the spin on the tunnel entry set up a turn on the tunnel exit (she was correct), and there were no verbals to tell her otherwise, so she missed the next jump.
I think the spin was a product of trying to get out of the FC and drive to the next line. The BC on the next one? Terrific! Looked easier and set up a better tunnel exit. Add some verbals to that: Give her a GO verbal before she enters and then start the jump verbal while she is in it (repeating the cue) so she doesn’t look for you.
Frame looked good too!
That soft sided weave entry is hard for every one (it was not the color of the poles, because most dogs have missed it on this course). For now, keep moving to it rather than decel and send (run to pole 2 to get it) You got it by converging almost past pole 1 but we want her to have better understanding so you can send & leave – stay tuned for a game coming on Monday!
Great job here – onwards to Jumping!
Tracy
Hi!
Good job elevating the plank and making him slow down 🙂
Ah, the elevated plank and slowing it down unveils the joys of adolescents LOL!!! He had a lot of legs going in different places, especially those pesky back legs LOL! He was really starting to think about foot placement rather than just go fast and hope for the best – strange as it might sound, slow games like this help future fast RDWs because the dogs know where their feet are at all times. He got better and better with each rep!He had the most trouble with balance when you rewarded with his head a little high. This is good to know and you can move the treats in slowly and feed with his head straight and yes, a little high to help him learn to balance. You can also have him do position changes on the plank: stand – sit- stand – down – stand. All very slowly 🙂 Feel free to start the position changes on the flat for now, with the goal being that he can do these position changes with very minimal foot movement 🙂 It is VERY challenging.
The hopping off was super easy (just to inform him that it is ok to safely dismount) and also going faster back and forth across the elevated plank was easy peasy for him!
Great job! Keep me posted on how he does, hopefully he will be back to running full steam ahead soon!
TracyHi!
I am glad you enjoyed it! I think you and Fusion looked AWESOME and I am very happy with how well our streaming internet connection worked – very, very clear video from the other side of the world!!!All of the instructional videos are up, and I will post the full video shortly.
T
Hi there! I am glad you are having fun with these! You ran them well!
There is a definite theme emerging for Charm – silence is NOT golden for the Golden (ahahaha I crack myself up :)) When you are too quiet and just running? We get errors because your motion supports lines you don’t necessarily want. She is SUPER responsive to verbals, so use more of them, use them early, use them often 🙂
Opening:
This went well! At 2-3 you can cue the push even sooner so you can get out of the way sooner for the blind to the teeter. She took off early for the jump between the 2 tunnels at :18 (dropping the bar) so that might be a strategy moment of not getting too far ahead, because she can’t see you and rushes the takeoff.
On the dog walk – you can release with the push cue rather than break, so she doesn’t look at you when released.Then you were quiet and running forward 9-10-11 and then as she landed at :28, you did a big loud cue which she clearly read as a forward cue and went to the tunnel in front of her. Good girl!
You were earlier at :38 with the verbal (as she was lifting off for 11) and also decelerated, and that really helped! Especially the decel!
As she enters the tunnel, give her a forward cue so she knows to carry forward and not look back at you (a bit too quiet here)/
You and Christine had the same question from your dogs on the jump after the a-frame the first time – too much running forward, not enough showing the wing, so Charm and Josie both pushed off it and spun (:48 and :58). Your running line to the backside wrap should be where the wing meets the bar, so she can see the full wing. If you are ahead, you will need to wait in that position til she passes you – moving forward too soon will potentially push her off the jump like you did here.
(also, slicing this jump is a better/faster line, bringing her in from the wing closer to the DW and exiting on the teeter side – the backside wrap is almost always harder and slower).
That soft side weave entry is hard for sure – you got it the 2nd time by converging to it, so you can work on running to pole 2 (rather than pole 1) to see if she will get i twihtout the convergence. I have a game coming to help that for all the dogs who find it challenging!
She definitely needed a turn cue on the jump after the weaves, the line you were running put her right on the DW – go with her if that happens, she was not wrong 🙂 and we don’t want her to consider jumping off. I don’t think she needs a big turn cue, just a verbal turn cue there that you did on the next rep. It is definitely a silence is NOT Golden moment for her, so use lots more verbals, she is very responsive to them!
The RC at the end worked REALLY nicely!!!
Course 2:
On this opening, be sure to show her the wing for the wrap at 3 – you were blocking it here (same as with the jump after the a-frame in the other course) so she had questions and slowed down.Same thing goes for the wrap on the jump after the teeter – yo uwere blocking the wing and trying to show the takeoff spot, so she pushed the wing (the bar stayed up, but the wing was a-shaking!)
Nice timing of the blind while she was weaving at :27 and the verbal! To seal the deal of the tight turn, you need to move away from it sooner and through FC – you were moving forward as she took off with the FC happening when she landed, so she had to turn on landing. Compare that to the send-and-go on the jump before the DW at :32 where you were leaving before she took off – great turn!
At :39, the whoa happened when she exited the tunnel so you had to wait for her which put you behind for the push at :44. If you get behind on a push, intensify your connection to her eyes and keep your dog-side arm back: that will show the line to the backside. When you look forward or use an arm send, that turns your shoulders to the front of the bar which is what she saw at :43
You were much earlier on the whoa (she heard it before the tunnel on the next rep, yay!) so the turn was better, and you got up the line to the backside better too! I bet a BC instead of a FC will make it even easier to get there.
Doing the full post turn at 1:07 at the end made her turn info a little delayed – I think a spin would work better there because you can leave sooner for the correct direction.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Definitely will focus on practicing without Forrest for Sequence 4 and retrain myself to do magnetic fingers, use my eyes and keep my shoulders and feet going where they need to be (without tripping on something or hitting the obstacle itself – klutz that I can be).
You are NOT a klutz at all! It is hard to connect back to the dog and still see where you are going. To open up your field of vision to see him AND the obstacles, try connecting lower, looking downwards rather than up high past your shoulder. That totally helps!
>>It’s very hot here…interrupted by pretty violent thunderstorms.
Yes, so hot!! I am in SW VA, and yesterday at 5pm when I got in the car to go to the internet space the live class streaming… it was 100 degrees out. HOLY HOT!!!! So short practices in any cool times of day are the way to go.
>>I looked at what came after these sequences and I’m thinking I will likely only get the STANDARD course set up and practiced before out next set of challenges is uploaded. My dog walk doesn’t move, so I have to flip what you have on your version of the course, with dog walk on the right not the left. I can move the other stuff.>>
Sounds good! Totally tweak it however you need to make it fit, then ignore the printed suggestions and walk & run what you have set in front of you.
Have fun! Fingers crossed for cool weather!
Good morning! He was definitely more engaged! And with more engagement, you will see more and more speed.
>>tying a toy to the lotus ball (felt kind of weird and I am not sure actually added a lot of value).>>
I think it added engagement value – easier to throw far then he really liked it when you were dragging it around. And remember to not just drop it: throw it far and let him chase it, then go grab it and snake it around for him to chase. It will be sweaty times! But totally worth it 🙂
>>First off, my commands were a bit mixed up sometimes
Yes – plus, there is a lot of other chatter in there which clouds the directionals, so you can take that out too. I think we are going to add a new puppy class game for everyone which is to run the sequence correctly with connections, verbals etc…. and only then can we add the puppy 🙂 The pups are too inexperienced to save us if something goes wrong, and if we humans are trying to run the sequence with the verbals and connections for the first time, we are gonna screw it up (guilty as charged here!) So that is what I recommend: while he is still in the cool A/C, you go outside and run it a few times: start by walking it with correct verbals and connections, then go faster til you can run with it being correct (yes, video this too LOL!). Then after you run it? Bring him out and try it. Just like the toy play – it will be sweaty but worth it 🙂 And when something goes wrong – just keep going like you meant it to happen so there are no stops, just get right back on the line to the tunnel or something.
The best reps where when you were running closer to the line and not too far ahead, so he could easily pick up the middle jump. Connection looked good! When you were too early, or too far ahead, he didn’t get that middle jump. I think starting and ending on the tunnel will help a lot, because it sets up the line with more speed excitement than just the wraps to the outside do.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
On those BCs, you were DEFINITELY better with the timing (each rep got better and better too!) and that really helps! The only thing to add now is: WINGS IN! Having your arms out and elongated, made the connection on the new side late – so even with starting earlier, she was not always responding as well as she could because the high arms made the exit connection late. So, after the send – pull your wings in by bending your elbows and keep your arms very tight to you, emphasizing the quickness of the new connection.
Speaking of the sends – you were still running the rounded line a bit more than needed because for the send, you would need to decelerate – that sets up the big send step & arm, then immediately being able to turn and move the other way. You were in motion the whole time, so the physics of the mechanics kept pulling you around the line. So to get the send – as she is exiting the tunnel, you are slowing down a bit to wind up for the big swoosh forward – then you can push off the send leg to go the new direction.
Only one little blooper section here –
You were a little too early and quiet at :35 so she didn’t take the BC jump (starting the BC when she landed without a verbal to support the next jump). No worries! One more step and a jump verbal will help. You were late on the next rep (maybe a bit of over-helping 🙂 ) at :47 and she pulled the bar and then you were moving sideways/not really connected so she got the correct tunnel entry but from the other side of you.The rest looked strong!
Rear cross video: This type of rear cross line also needs to use decel to set them. As she exits the tunnel, you can be up near the jump before the RC, deceleating and turning to the center of the bar of the RC jump. Then as she is approaching the jump, you can start accelerating towards the center of the rear cross bar (don’t worry about the wrap exit, let’s just get her turning correctly before takeoff). When you came in with motion from the tunne, you didn’t decel to set it and ended up turning to the post turn wing – so she didn’t gt it at first, but then ended up getting it over the bar/on landing. That becomes a bit of a pull-and-flick RC which is not as strong as the RC diagonal cues. When coming in without motion from a stay – voila, there was the decel! So she read it 🙂 So add in the decel to set the RC line then accelerate to the center of the bar to cue it. On simpler RC lines like the next set of games, you won’t have to decelerate to set the RC as long as you ar not miles ahead 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
One of the most important elements of beginning to add sequences at her age is that she thinks it is the best, easiest, most fun thing EVER, regardless of how the sequences look LOL! That way we end up with an adult dog who is happy, relaxed, confident, no frustrations or worries. So I have a few ideas to help her out!Go lines are hard, so we help her out! Part of what will help her is the visual of the reward out ahead on the line, so either throw it sooner or have it placed out ahead so she is not looking back at you at all, and so she finds the jump easily
I think the bars are too high for her right now, at 9 months old I would not put them up at all, maybe lock them in at 4 inches so that she can focus on the cues and lines, and not on having to organize any jumping effort at all.
On the line towards tunnel, lead out more so your motion shows her the line before she takes off for 1. If she doesn’t have a long enough stay yet, you can either start her between 1 and 2 so she drives directly to the tunnel, or you can use a wing instead of a jump as #1 to wrap her an get ahead to show her the line (then throw the reward after the tunnel)
On the wraps – wraps require a lot of early handler input as well as a lot of coordination from the pup, so if she is wide, don’t have any reaction to it other that “woohoo!” and reward. For now, replace the wrap jump with just a wing to go around – that wing should have more value than the jump at this stage, so she will commit more easily and require less handler input (which means you can sort out the handling needed :))
The wraps are still a work in progress, so be super careful to keep them flowing and filled with reinforcement, not letting on that there might have been an error:
You were late at :40 (just starting the cue as she was taking off) so you stopped – yes, you rewarded after you stopped, but the dogs know the difference that it was not really correct. So even if you are mad at yourself, just keep going like it was perfect. She was perfect, reading your cues correctly!Then when you pulled her off at 1:05, you got frustration behavior from her
(jumping up, then a frozen moment). She did go take the jump eventually, but I don’t want to build in the frustration behaviors because she was not wrong (the cues were not clear enough). So if that happens – woohoo! Big reward or turn and run the next line back to the tunnel for a reward.She got smoother on the last reps, but I would definitely still replace the jump with a wing so she can commit more easily and you can keep playing with the timing.
>>Also, we only have body motion for push
That is normal for her age you can use just a wing for that too, to protect her body/jumping as you show her the lines.
>> nothing for Rear Crosses.
Hold off on those til she is very comfortable with the Go lines, and looking ahead really easily.Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy>>Onthe 3rd, I could wlak along and Changtse could sit. Today,I had to walk in place. i think that she was just tired of sitting:
That is not that unusual for adolescent dogs 🙂 I think also there were different distractions in the 2nd session, and definitely differences in your mechanics. Next time you trie it, do it further from the agility obstacles like you were on the 3rd. And, focus on cleaner transitions:
Have your reinforcement in hand and ready to go before you start moving or cue the sit. On the first session, it was all happening a little too fast, mushing the toy play and sit cue all into one moment so the movement happened after the sit cue. On the 6th, your movement was happening before the sit cue, which might have been the source of her struggle.
So, get the play with the toy, get the cookie ready in your hand, put the toy away, start to move slowly… then cue the sit. That can help her have better clarity of cues to respond to, so you will see a more consistent response.
Onwards to the straight lines!
Tracy
Hi!
She is doing well here! She is definitely interested in that long crazy toy, except when it goes quiet on the ground – so keep running to reward her, she really was on fire when you did that 🙂
>> When I started doing more wings, I couldn’t get the verbals in.
Yes, the verbals are hard especially as we do a bunch in a row! You can practice this at speed without her, so you can get the verbals in correctly: start slowly, using the verbals, then get faster and faster (still using the verbals :)) – and then bring her into it 🙂 Her commitment looks strong and she is turning beautifully, so adding more emphasis on the verbals is a great way to get them more solid too.
Speaking of verbals: Try not to say “yay Tali” because she is confused about whether is it a “you are getting reward” moment or a “keep doing the thing” moment. For example at :26, she came off the commitment because of the ‘yay Tali’ (it is what you say to her when you reward each time, so it was a legit response from her). You were much clearer at :37 when you used verbals for the wings and the praise for the reinforcement, so she knows when to wrap versus when to chase the toy.
She really seemed to like the race tracks! You can mix those in sooner, so she has a good balance of the tight wraps and the speed lines of the race tracks 🙂
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
It is a happy accident that the CAMP and MaxPup games this week both have this setup LOL! Wish looks great here! And you connection throughout all the videos is lovely 🙂Video 1 – great connection! And I think the timing is going well! A suggestion here (and on the others) is to try to keep moving, and send and go on the middle jump. It is a small setup so easy to end up not moving enough, so running more to the tunnel and sending to the tunnel less will help that. And, since there are lots of verbals now: You can also repeat the verbals rather than say them once, and try to make them sound entirely different in volume, length, pitch, etc. That will really help her process the differences.
Video 2 – Her commitment is looking great on these! This one definitely needs more motion to get the turns, though – it seems counterintuitive, but get the tight turns you need to run harder into them LOL! You were sending and decelerated for most of it, so she was surprised by the turns. So, add a transition into the deceleration by running in closer to the tunnel, accelerating harder… then decelerating as she is taking the middle jump to begin cueing the wrap. That should help her get the collection there before takeoff rather than after landing.
Video 3 – her BC looks good, you’ve got the timing and connection and position looking really good! On this one too… more acceleration needed 🙂 Using less tunnel send will give you more room to run run run in and out of it 🙂
Video 4 – she read the BC to the tunnel really well! The BC element on both sides looked great – on time, connected, and moving to the correct line so she never looked at the wrong end of the tunnel. Super!! As with the others, the main suggestion here is that you can move more here too. By sending to the tunnel, you got a little stuck in decel, sending to the next 2 jumps before running to the blind. So, run her into the tunnel, getting closer to the tunnel – that way you can use motion to get the next jump, do a big send to the middle jump, then run away to the BC. That should make the BC even easier! And, be prepared – she will find a new gear of speed when you do that, so be ready for earlier timing:)
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I think you were melding two games here maybe? The first part is really just about the pup offering getting the wobble board to move and then making noise, slamming it around and each reward happens off the board.
Then, when the pup can happily move the wobble board and make it noisy – we take it to the teeter. If needed, you can refresh his backing up skills from the earlier MaxPup classes, backing up on the flat and backing up onto the wobble board.
>> Do I have him just back up on it or can he go across?
Initially, on the wobble board, it is just making it move and getting it to make noise so he can just go across it, however the puppy wants to do that (no backing up). The backing up need to be separate at first, so it can eventually be offered on the teeter.
>> When I go back to the teeter, just front feet slam, don’t get on, only get on backing up?
If you need a warm up of front feet/love the slam, that is fine – but the teeter game should mainly focus on backing up only.
>>So, I put the teeter half inch from the ground and have him back on?
Correct.
>>Nothing from the side or ride it down a bit?
Correct – not for this game. That is trained separately.
>>Is our goal for them to understand the position and not movement.
The goal is to get the pup to really love moving the board and controlling it, with his hind end and weight shift – which is exactly what we want the pup to do eventually across the full board. This game isolates a very specific element. It will build some value for eventual position but the position is not that important for now.
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning!
>>Yep. She’s at that gawky teenage stage. But, she’ll figure it out. I can see that I’m not rewarding neutral head most of the time. So, work for me. There was a lot of reading in the fitness homework. I’m pretty close to getting to the exercises.>>
Yes, she will get it! And the more I talk to the neuroscientists about this stuff, the more they tell me to not work too hard on getting it with the dogs at this age because, physically and mentally, the adolescents are not fully formed so we just keep making it fun and feel good and breaking it down – and then it will come together amazingly well AND last longer when the adolescents mature into adults. It is a much more relaxing approach to training youngsters 🙂
On the video:
>>Unfortunately, I thought the camera behind the tunnel would be good. It turns out it’s not a great vantage point.
I think it was good! No problems seeing what needed to be seen 🙂 This session answered some really important questions:
>>The word go tends to make her chase and drop bars.
Actually, I think it is the toy throws – that is what happened at :06. You threw the toy a lot later at :12 and the other go reps and there were no bar issues. So to work the go lines – have a toy placed several strides past the end, so you don’t have to worry about timing the throw.
>>I still don’t know what I’m doing wrong with the FC wraps. She’s not getting it and RC wrap wasn’t easy either. She got the back side, but I’m pushing on her line.>
This session was great in that it answered the questions and the answer is… timing. In looking at what worked for her and was did not, it comes down to timing of info.
>> It’s apparently hard to fix me. I’m struggling with the transition from fast to slow. >>
You are doing well – it is timing. See below. And it takes some rehearsal to get it really smooth, so you did a great job rewarding all the things 🙂
>>I just don’t see a big change, but I’m sure it’s there as your dogs seem to get it.
The change is in the stride length – big strides go to little strides. You are doing it!
OK, so here is the scoop – when you start the cues when she is lifting off for the jump BEFORE the turn jump, she gets it beautifully every single time – wrap, rear, backside. When you let her land *then* start? Too late to show the info and she is guessing, because she has tomake a takeoff decision.
Note – this is the normal timing we are seeing on fast dogs nowadays. In the CAMP class that is also running right now, this is the exact timing those Masters level dogs need. She fits right into the ‘normal Masters-level timing’ group 🙂
Looking at the wraps where she was wide, all of those cues started when she landed from the jump, so by the time she processed them – too late, the takeoff decision had been made.
Compare to the wrap at 1:54, super nice because of earlier timing – you were already decelerating as she was lifting off for the jump after the tunnel so she got a great turn. YAY!
On the backside reps – becauase you had to push the line, the cue was timely. for example at 1:31, you were already pushing the line before she took off for the jump after the tunnel.
Same thing about the timing on the RCs – on the reps where you were facing straight when she landing, she turned right each time because the RC diagonal was visible to her after she had to make a takeoff decision (like at 1:45). Compare it to 2:04 and 2:18, where the RC diagonal was becoming evident at the takeoff of the jump after the tunnel – nailed it!
No worries that she ended up on the wrong line back to the tunnel after the RC wrap – the way this was set, the GO line took her to the other end of the tunnel so it would actually be an ‘out’ for her to get the other side of the tunnel (a couple of inches can make a big difference!)
So, I am pretty excited about what she told us here – you’ve got the mechanics, now start rehearsing them starting sooner – see her getting ready to lift off for the jump after the tunnel and start delivering the info 🙂 Yes, there is always fine tuning of the delivery for the youngsters, but the timing info here is super valuable!
Great job!
TracyGood morning! A day off from training is a very very good thing 🙂 The best training often comes when we decide NOT to train LOL!!
The NADAC stuff looked like a lot of fun!
First video:
This is so fun – basically, he was getting to go fast and do some things without worrying about jumping stuff. His contacts and weaves look so much more independent than they did the last time we looked at his baby dog work! Yay! You can add a little more duration to the stops on the contacts, a little praise before the release and maybe even a breath, so he doesn’t get into the rhythm of quick releases.On the jumpers run – he was fine to be that independent, in fact I think the info was late enough that he can make acase for being correct LOL!! The first opening had a lot of extension and so that is the line you set him on, and the RC on the 2nd run needed more deceleration and a left verbal. But a young dog confidently finding lines? Yes please!! So I am glad you kept him moving for the most part and he didn’t seem to perceive it as an error. He was barking here a bit when the cues were late – I think these distances are a little too short for him even at the lower height. He is having to run in relative collection – and that is not a habit we want to foster. So maybe for future NADACs, skip the jumpers courses unless that have big distances and he can really open up 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
<>Timing different options will be great! I haven’t done that too much with him, but what I have done I’ve learned that he is faster slicing jumps vs. wrapping them almost every single time. That was very good info for me and it helps me make handling decisions while walking a course.>>
Totally agree about slices being faster almost all the time! And now we can get into the types of turns that are less obvious, as well as different handling choices – he is ready for all that. 🙂
T
