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Hi!
Lots of good work here, great connection and handling choices! Just a few details to smooth out:Course 1 opening: It is a hard opening 🙂
On that 1st run – keep moving towards 3, you were too far away so she was not sure if she should take it. You were much clearer on the 2nd rep, but don’t stop 🙂 keep your threadle arm back and keep moving and trust her to turn 🙂The rest of the opening through to the DW looked good, you can probably cue more go go go on tunnel exits here to propel her across the ring so you can layer and meet her at the end of the DW. She anticipated that DW contact release, so that is a good one to practice!
The middle section of 9backside to the a-frame looked great! Yay!! And smart to reward on the frame 🙂
After the frame, she had big questions about the circle wrap: you are blocking her line on the circle wrap at 1:14 so she considering cutting in front of you but you were moving forward so she was confused. The positional cue for those circle wraps on the backside is to be moving to where the wing and the bar meet so she can see the full wing, then decel there to let her get past you if needed. You have a tendency to block her path on those, so always remember to show her the wing.
Something else to consider here – the slice on that backside is a better/faster option, threadling her between you and the jump (bringing her to the entry on the dog walk side) so she slices out over it to the poles.
Ending line: Nice job leaving the weaves! She was a bit wide on 19 – good job setting the RC line, so rememebr to remember to add in th edecel and verbal as you set that line as well. The decel and verbal didn’t start til just before takeoff so she was wide. You were definitely earlier at 1:49 but still late – start the decel as she is over 18 not when she lands, and it will be perfect 🙂
Course 2:
Nice wrap at 3 at 2:05 and 2:28 – you let her get past you a lot better but you are still blocking the view of the wing (you were waiting for her to pass you and run across your feet). This contributed to the off course tunnel: at 2:07, you indicated 4 but you were moving forward out of behind behind her for the wrap and didn’t say anything or turn, so she went straight into the tunnel. You were much clearer at 2:30 🙂Looking at the wrap after the teeter, it looks like she could see the wing clearly at 2:37. Yay!! The BC was late there which contributed to the missed weave entry:
as she is lifting off, you should already be doing the BC – you did it after she landed at 2:39, so she was curling into you waiting for connection and didn’t get the line to the weaves in time (you had the same timing on he 2nd rep but moved to the entry more, which helped her find the entry there at 3:23)When you did the wrap again at 3:20, you were blocking the wing. She got it (having seen it already) so be sure that you always show her the wing the first time so she can see the line the first time.
love that you an cross while she is still weaving! Nice! You can give her more connection on weave exit (don’t connect with your hand, connect with your eyes 🙂 ) but really nice line after it!
On the whoa tunnel exit after the DW – the timing of the verbal was good and she came out looking for the turn at 3:02. She had a little question after it and drifted a bit – most likely because she couldn’t see connection yet and you were moving a bit sideways towards the a-frame and not down towards the next jump. To help get that blind even quicker to show connection, you can go directly to your right side as you run to the blind and not look over your left at all (no time for that LOL!) And, remember to run directly straight downstream towards the wingless jump (not across the bar of the BC jump)
To tighten up that last FC at 3:06, add decel as soon as she is lifting off for the backside, so she sees the collection cue and so you can rotate away for the FC before she takes off for it. It is a short distance there, so the WOO for the timing starts at liftoff of the previous jump.
Great job here! Let me know how the weekend goes!
TracyHi!
He is doing really well with these sequences, especially with it being the first time on the floor for him! Yay! And I can see the teeter value 🙂
His commitment looks good, so we can look at the timing. The spacing looks pretty tight, which makes things harder with a big striding dog – it means all the timing basically comes as he is lifting off for the previous jump.
Looking at the FC on the panel jump: Your timing got better and better with each rep! That is hard spacing for sure – the first rep had the FC starting as he was in the air, and the FCs at :52 and 1:31 were both before takeoff. Ideally, you would be beginning the FC one step sooner: as he was in the air over the blue jump so he can see it all starting on the way to the panel jump. I think a BC there instead of a FC would make it even easier, because BCs are quicker to finish (no rotation, just a head turn).
It sounds like you were giving him the tunnel cue as he is in the air over the jump after the FC, which is good! It might have been a shade late on the first rep and he was looking at the teeter a bit, probably due to the FC being a little late and the teeter being high value 🙂
The spin on the jump after the tunnel was definitely the correct handling choice! You were late starting it on the first rep, but I really liked the timing of starting it at :59! Really nice! He had a commitment question when you did that, though, probably because you were decelerated and spins need motion as part of the commitment for young dogs – you can get the motion and commitment while still having this great timing by running in closer to that long tunnel, so you can stay in motion when he exits while starting the spin. On the last rep, you adjusted to being a little later to help smooth out the commitment question, but you can try it with more motion and see if he will still commit with the earlier timing.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>.Referencing your previous comment of “it’s a connection issue” and the problem of my lower body not showing the right thing, I think that could fix 90% of our issues, lol.
Yes, connection and motion are really the bedrock of handling – if we focus on strong connection and generally running the right direction, 90% of agility gets very easy 🙂 It is harder than it sounds for sure! It takes practice and you are doing a great job! Plus, she is a young dog, so we are training her at the same time we are sorting out handling, which makes it harder as well.
>> (I know you say to only let the dog fail twice, but she got a reward after every attempt, and she was happy to try again, so I kept trying to change the timing of my cross.)
The 2 failure rule is only if you don’t reward and if you don’t change things. You were rewarding and changing things to help her, which is great 🙂
Looking at the opening at the beginning and end of the video, there are a couple of different options on how to handle it.
On the first rep, she seemed to understand the ‘push’ handling to go to the backside! Yay! But she didn’t understand the training element that she was also supposed to take the jump as you moved forward. So you can train that a bit by looking behind you at the landing spot and pointing to it with your left hand like you did here (this is what I mean by a throwback) and then toss a reward to the landing side of the jump to help her get commitment.On the next several reps, you did the blind which is also a good way to do it! Because it is a backside blind, it begins a bit later than normal blinds – you would let her land from 1 and then begin it as you move forward to the backside of 2. You were early with the blind at :17 and :23 so she took the front (you can just instantly reward all of those, she was correctly responding). You were correctly later at :28 and she got it. Yay!
Your timing was good at 1:55 but you were a little too far from the jump. When you got rid of the blind at 2:12, you were basically doing a threadle opening and yes, it is easier because there is less timing involved 🙂 I think the threadle opening (where you are facing the jump and using the right arm to call her to the backside) is probably the easiest way to handle it. The blind was not an incorrect choice, it just required precise timing. The threadle is easier for all of us: no timing required LOL!
>> Also, what exactly is a “forced front”?
Any “forced” cue refers to a physical cue that you do on the takeoff side of a backside. You were working forced blind crosses (a blind cross on the takeoff side of the backside at 2). A forced front is a front cross on the takeoff side of a backside. You will see it most often used at the beginning of a course where the handler leads out to it. It looks like his:
The rest of the opening on that rep looked GREAT! Yes, you were late to turn here to 7 at :36 but you had MUCH better timing of stating all those cues (verbal, rotation, position) at :44 and she nailed it. Super! And I agree that you can probably send her to the 5 tunnel from further away to get there sooner, in the full flow of the course. You did a FC there, I bet a BC would be even easier!
>In your notes, you suggested doing a “throwback” or “spin” on the exit of 6. What is a “throwback”? Is the “spin” you suggested the same as a reverse spin like I did at the takeoff before 7?
Throwbacks and spins are very similar, rotated cues – the difference is mainly which hand you cue the jump with – a spin tends to have the arm across the body and a throwback tends to be the dog-side arm, away from the body.
This is a thowback (my dog kept running around the tunnel at the beginning LOL!)
And this is a spin:
Because of the super high speed nature of the 6-7-8 line, doing the spin on 7 at :46 was super challenging to start on time because a lot of deceleration is required – I think a simple forward send would be great there because she does not need to do a very tight turn there.
When you came back through that section at 2:20 – great job layering to get to 7 nice and early!!! Your verbals started on time… but the rotation did not happen on time (same at 2:32) so you got the straight line into the tunnel. Trust her commitment more and when you start the verbals, start a blind cross so that you will be turned and connected on your left side before she even takes off for 6 🙂 You will find the BCs are easier to get on these big lines than the FCs because the blinds require no deceleration.
The midcourse section 8-9-10-11-12-13 looked AWESOME! No worries about the backside at 14, take a moment to revel in how good that middle section looked! Verbals, connection, timely cues… well done! You got it again towards the end to the video – yes, remember that connection, it looks great when you can connect and send her like that.
For the backside sends for 14 at 1:08 – one thing that helps is to keep your send arm behind you and make a massive eye contact as you move up the line towards the center of the bar, delivering the cue to her eyes very directly. It is entirely counterintuitive to do it like that, but it works well because it turns your shoulders to the backside entry line. By using an arm cue to send her forward past you, the arm turns your shoulders to the front side of the bar which is why she kept taking the front.
When you did that line again, bringing her to the inside of 14 – you were going for a double blind, woohoo!! The first one was really good, perfect timing! When she gets to the backside at 14, for the 2nd BC there, make more eye contact (to turn your chest & shoulders to the jump. You pointed forward, so she didn’t know exactly where to be on the jump, but she took a good guess – great job to you both for continuing on there, then rewarding – we want her to help you out there and find the line even if things are not perfect. A double blind is a really fun option – it requires a lot of eye contact, so keep your arms in tight to your sides so you can be quick with the blind and find her eyes 🙂
>>For 13-14, I didn’t understand all of your notes. Where would you do the two blinds?
Exactly where you put them when you tried it at the end of the video 🙂
>>How far ahead do you need to be for that to work?
You were in the perfect spot when you did the first blind: she was jumping 13 and you were up at the wing of 14.
This is a double blind in a slightly different context:
>> What would the threadle look like from that side?
You would keep her on your right side, and rotate your upper body towards her, bringing your threadle arm up – very similar to what you did at the opening at 2:12 but with a lot more running 🙂
The ending looked great! She saw your blind starting just before she got into the tunnel, and the verbal right after it, so she turned well and nailed the ending line.
>>Is the video and editing format ok? I know some people prefer not to have such short clips and want to see more.>>
This was good – you ran the clips til you stopped and rewarded. If she was having focus issues, we might need to see more.
>>Should I just keep going and not try to fix anything when running the full courses (a little challenging with off-courses sometimes)?
Yes, that is a great skill for trials!
>>We very much did not obtain the goal of “first run, best run” this time around!>>
No worries at all, you will see that ‘first run, best run’ percolate more as the summer continues and more importantly – you will see if start to happen at trials, where it is more important 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She did really well here – her commitment looks strong, and you did a lovely job with connection and verbals. Yay!
Because her commitment is looking good, you can be earlier on the BCs:
to get the BCs sooner, you can move up the line to 3 from a line that is more laterally away from jump 3. The ideal line to run would have you not going past the center of the tunnel, so she takes the 3 jump at least one meter away from you. That will put you far enough ahead to trust her commitment so you can start the BC no later than when she is halfway between the 2 jumps. You went a bit too close to 3 at :05, :20, :31, :47 and 1:03 which made the BC late (starting when she was in the air). Your connection helped her find the correct side, and the rest of it looked great!On the last rep, you sent her really well to the middle jump at 1:23 and did the BC before the tunnel – very nice! When she is committing to the middle jump, you don’t have to run al lthe way to the BC jump. You can be moving a bit more towards the center of the tunnel, which will help cue her about the turn on the BC jump – and you can trust her commitment more, starting the blind right after she lands from that middle jump.
Great job here! Le me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
For both of these sessions, the main thing is to start things off easier to get success and have a clear criteria – I couldn’t tell if you wanted him backing up to the teeter on the first video or just touching it, so he was not clear and that led to a lot of failure.
Bearing in mind the 2 failure rule, this was definitely too hard because of the height of the board – he would have to tak ea massive step up to get it moving backwards, and it is a significant drop pushing it down with his front feet. So be watchful for his questions and make it easier after 2 failures. And if you miss a MM click? No worries, you can hand him a treat instead.
2 failures in this case were when he tried to get on from the side, or offered a down in front of you. You tried to help him with a hand cue but he was frustrated. So to make it easier – take out the tip of the board almost entirely so he is very confident touching it – this tip was a little too much. You can also make it easier by putting yourself closer to it. If you were looking for him to back up onto it, you can also lure him into a 4 on, lure his front feet off (or have him hop on like he did on the 2nd video – then wait for him to offer putting his front feet back on the board. Eventually you will be able to ask him to come off with all 4 feet then back no with all 4 feet.
The first session ended up being about front foot hitting on the teeter, which is fine for building value for the movement but not necessarily the goal of the session – but definitely watch for the 2 failure rule and change the level of difficulty immediately if he has questions.
On the 2nd session, it looks like you started him on the board which helps, but the board is still too high – he is not going to step up that high yet to back up onto it.
>>I tried to get him to back up but he preferred )upping on and offering a four on.
The board being so high and the value of the previous session where he got in it moving forward is why he did it here. So you can lower the board, have him get on forwrd, reward him ever so slightly off the board so front feet come off, then reward again for front feet stepping back on.
>> Should I block the sides with my legs or is this behavior okay.
You can try blocking it with your legs, but if he thinks the behavior is getting on from the side, then he will jump over your legs LOL! 🙂
>>Don’t we want a touch on the bottom?
Do you mean backiing up? Yes, that is ideal, but I think this setup was too challenging to get that started.
Before you try it on the teeter again, review backing up on the flat and then backing up onto a bigger board, like a wobble board or something (but have it braced with a bunch of towels under it, so it is low and doesn’t move a lot). That will ‘wake up’ the backing up skills, especially if he hasn’t done them in a while. Then on the next teeter session, have the board less than half an inch off the grond and see how it goes.
Also – was the MM going or was he getting treats from your hand? I was confused and I think he was too about where to look for rewards on the 2nd video.
I think he will pick it up pretty quickly with these adjustements, Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I am happy with her speed here too, even with the muggy weather!! This is a hard setup because it requires a lot of precision handling behavior. The rear crosses are definitely harder, which is pretty normal at this stage.For the Rear Crosses, especially the ones turning to her right – you can prime the pump with a couple of GO lines, where you run to the tunnel exit before running up the line, cueing a straight line once or twice. The, add the RC by running to the tunnel exit then moving up the line, adding that pressure on the RC diagonal by running to the center of the bar. I suggest running to the tunnel exit because on this curved tunnel, running to the entry then leaving is putting you too far ahead – so you are on the far side of the RC jump and decelerating sharply, which confuses her especially on the right turns. Ideally, she is even with you or passing you before the jump after the tunnel so you don’t need to decelerate at all and can drive the diagonal.
Both of your backside pushes were really strong! You can make the connection earlier on the first one, connecting to her strongly as she is jumping the previous jump. This is what you did at 1:13 and it looked lovely!
For the wraps when she was turning left – a little more connection at :25 as she was landing with the previous jump will help, and more verbal – you added the verbal no the next rep and she totally got it. Yay!
On the other side, she as confusing the wrap line and the RC handling, because they were looking about the same when she had to make a decision. At :55 (rear cross) and 1:01 (you wanted a wrap), you were in the same spot on both so she guess that 1:01 was a rear cross too (she is stronger turning to her left here). So for the RCs, running close to the tunnel exit so you can show the RC diagonal as she is landing from the previous jump will help! And for the wraps, you can leave the tunnel and go directly to the wrap wing – that way it will look (and sound :)) entirely different and she will get it.
You did a great job keeping her in motion and rewarding, even when things didn’t go as planned – it is all handling, so the dogs are mirrors that reflect our cues which is why we reward them so much 🙂 It keeps them in the game and going fast!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Yes, that is one of the ways to isolate the individual feet! She did well here. Have you treats ready so that she is not looking down then up after the click, which will chang eher head position – try to have your just look at the cookie hand with her head in a neutral position (just above her shoulders) so you can just move the treat forward to her after the click.
The cato teeter doesn’t need to be a teeter, I haven’t even taken that part of it out of the box yet either LOL! I just use it as a narrow board.
On the wobble board, you can also c/t that left hind specifically rather than waiting for all 4 on. She will always lead with the right hind when she is all 4 on the ground to start, so you can wait til you see left hind hit the board – or place the reinforcement so she only comes off the wobble board with 3 feet (easier said than done, my guess is you will need to move the reward to your left hand so she turns a bit to her right to come off, leaving her right hind on the board – that way the first movement is left hind. And you can click that -at :50, for example, she lead with the left hind so that is worthy of a click even if all 4 were not on the board
>>Oh, now Kim thinks Sprite needs more shoulder reach.
That can be reached through conditioning work and also lots of stretching and range of motion exercises too to promote as much as structurally possible (and maturity :)), more so than jumping exercises. From the agility perspective, head position plays a role: a head up position will tend to invert the spine and shorten front end reach, while a loewr head position will tend to round the spine better and promote more reach.
This is all fun stuff to start adding in slowly, because physical and mental maturity also play a big role and there is not anything we can do to speed that up 🙂
Tracy
Hi! The live working spot add-on form was live during enrollment, and closed when it filled. I am sure that spots will become available as the summer moves along, stay tuned!!
Tracy
Hi!
Border Collies are fun! But definitely not easy – that makes me chuckle every time someone says they got a Border Collie because it would be easy LOL!
>>Last time we got to this point in your lines course, you sent us off to work the Lazy Game… we did and I think it generally made her commitment better. >>
Yes, the lazy game is so important for her! If she is good with the lazy game with you walking, the next steps are to get you going faster without connecting or handling more. If she can still find the lines with you going faster, we can add lazy sends! It will be so helpful for her. Let me know if she can do it with you running!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!!! These sequences a look good!
Seq 1: you know it is going to be a great run when the entire video is only 10 seconds long LOL! Very nice! On this opening line, you can be cueing the tunnel with verbals and upper body, and see how early you can turn and leave before she enters the tunnel, to show acceleration and get even further up the line. You can see her lock onto the tunnel line no later than halfway between 2 and the tunnel entry, so you can get outta there sooner 🙂
On the 2nd run here – to help her drive forward out of tunnels and not head-check, one thing to consider is elongating the forward cues like tunnel and go – they are chattered here (“gogogogogo” for example) which might end up getting mistaken for wrap directionals which are also chattered and get handler focus. You can try for repeating them less and making them longer (and louder :)) such as GOOOOO GOOOOO GOOOO and TUUUUUNNEEELLLL
Those longer cues, plus acceleration before she enters and then thrown or placed rewards, will help get her driving forward without the head check.Seq 2: Her response to the left verbal was great! Yay! I don’t think you exactly trusted her, staying there to see what she does 🙂 You can say the left cue and turn and leave, trusting her to pick up the line.
Going back to the Go after it is smart training! She had a question about the tunnel exit there at 1:21 – you decelerated before she entered, then said go and took off again, so she looked at you after she exited (“which is it, human, turn or go?” LOL!) On the rep after it at 1:54, you cued the go with acceleration, and she didn’t have any questions there 🙂
Arram is adorable and so fun! He is waaaay young and all legs – so break all of this down for him to eliminate failure or frustration. I think the tunnel can stay in isolation for now, so he learns to drive to it from further and further away. He needed you to be all the way up there to cue it, so that is a good one to work separately so you don’t have to be ahead and super connected. Start just by holding his collar, saying the tunnel verbal a few times, then let go and drive to the tunnel with a thrown reward at the end of it (or placed at the end).Then get further and further away, and eventually add a wing wrap before it. I don’t suggest starting from a stay for now, because there are too many errors – broken stays, running past the tunnel, bar down, etc. So keeping the drive-to-tunnel skill in isolation will help, then I bet you can easily add it back to the sequences and build it up from there.
Keep throwing the toys on the go line or tunnel exits, so he doesn’t curl into you on those. He takes them for a bit of a lap, so you can call him back with another toy or treat to speed up that transition LOL! And for now, don’t ask for turns on the tunnel exit until he has a fully developed drive to the tunnel 🙂
Great job with both dogs! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> It is tricky finding the right balance because she does like to chase me but I need to plan to not get too far ahead so that I have to stop or slow down. You are right that this means I have to run the long way a lot. >>
Yes, definitely tricky! And so I like to train so much mor cimmitment with small dogs, to the point that they go blasting away on a line like a big dog. Having throwable reinforcement really helps, like a lotus ball or treat hugger so food-motivated dogs.
>>Buccleigh is still having his moments when he isn’t feisty and stops.
One thing that has be super successful for motivating dogs is to simply never stop moving (the handler, that is). There is an error on course, for whatever reason? Keep running and cueing as if all is good. It is hard for the handler to do this – staying in motion with no reaction or hesitation at all. But it is sooooooo good for the dogs! Finish the run then figure out what happened afterwards, then try again.
>>He is more tolerant of my mistakes as long as I don’t make too many.
Don’t let him know that you have made *any* mistakes…. keep running, keep running. If something goes wrong? Connect more, cue a tunnel, something to act like all is perfect.
>>This is a lead up to a question about the course you have on-line (In the Zone-21 day mental prep masterclass). Since both of my dogs have a tendency to shut down at trials and I am the common denominator I am thinking that my stress might be a significant factor. From the description, I think this course might be really useful for me. Would you agree?>>
That course is useful, yes! But I think this one is better, for handler mental state:
[AU-034] Train Your Brain: Getting Into The Right ‘Head Space’ For Dog Sports
It has more updated specifics, and recorded zoom chats that also brought up good topics from participants 🙂
>>Last question. I need to modify the standard course to fit it in my yard. I made a short video to show the modifications.>>
Those all look good! Be sure to walk the course as it is set on the ground to make handling plans, feel free to disregard the printed map and hints 🙂 And if the DW approach will require apple-tree-layering, be sure that they see that before you ask for it at full speed on a big course run, so they don’t fall off the DW.
Have fun!
TracyHi! Both angles look good for video! Use whichever angle gets better wifi 🙂
About the tree – most of the work will be perfectly fine. There are a couple of moments where he might have to go out around the tree, or we can bring the 2 outer jump near the tree in closer (or angle them). If he doesn’t want to go around the treat, we will make those little tweaks and he will have plent of challenges 🙂
See you later! I have put in a request for the weather gods for good weather only!T
Hi!
>>This one is an angry elf and growls and bites
Don’t anger the elf! LOL! And that is more reason to take more steps to each line. Don’t try to be perfectly on time… try to just see her commitment right now, help support each line. Then you can work on getting the timing earlier and earlier.
>>We need to go back to practice our serpentines and then learn the threadles. I’ve not begun threadle wraps with her either. >>
To prioritize – yes, serps are at the top of the list, with threadle slices being a lower priority for now. And those threadle wraps that are so popular? Very low priority for now. We will work them specifically in the week 3 games package in a few weeks.
Have fun, stay cool!
TracyHi!
If you are concerned about her leaving, you can bring her in using pattern games and other acclimation games, before trying sequences. And reset cookies help too! Leaving 1 out of every 8 reps is significant enough that I would definitely add the pattern games to her routine before trying off leash sequences, especially sequences with stays that are harder for her.T
