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Good morning!
>>Thanks, I’m finding it so much easier to teach him than #1. Might be the dog, or might be that I actually have an idea as to what I want to teach him now.
Both! But you definitely have done a great job teaching him.
>>Everyone’s first agility dog deserves a special place in heaven>>
Omg this is TRUTH!!!!
Hi! The first live is 4 jumps and a tunnel – and the info gets sent out about 36 hours in advance.
T
Hi!
Using a Samsung to a PC, after uploading/editing and saving to the computer:try going to http://www.drive.google.com
then open a new document (it is on the right hand side of the page on my computer)Just below the title, you will see “Insert”
Click on that, then click on Image, then click on upload from computer – then you can either click on a video to add, or you can drag and drop it directly in the document.then in the upper right hand corner, click on “Share”
In the box that comes up, you can change “Restricted” to “Anyone with link” by clicking on it.Then copy the link and paste it into the forum. Let me know if that helps!
Thanks,
TracyHello and welcome to you and the Shelties 🙂 I am glad you are all having fun! And yes, now we will work on timing, connection, verbals, etc – it will be fun! Enjoy!
TracyHellooooooo and welcome back! 18 months!!!! Now the fun REALLY begins! I am looking forward to seeing her work 🙂
TracyWhich device do you use to video, and do you want to load directly from that device?
Happy to help 🙂This fits nicely into your yard! You made it work nicely, in terms of capturing the challenges for him. He is looking REALLY good!!!
The opening line of 1-2-3 looked strong each and every time. You had really great connection and motion!!!
Things got spicy after the tunnel 🙂
On the first run, – when you are ahead after the 3 tunnel and showing 4-5-6, he had a little question (ticked the bar of 4 and slowed down at 5). He also had a question in the same spot at 1:11 where he did not take 4. A few things to help him there:
More connection back to him in the form of reaching your arm back to him (fingers to his nose so he can see your face more) will help him see the line more, and also saying “jump” as you look at him will help too! If you start the verbals before he even enters the tunnel, you can then be connected and turning after he exits, to set the line nicely for him.The connection was definitely better at 1:37 on the 3rd rep! You can now also be turning sooner for 5 and also for the line back to the tunnel: when you see he is committing to 5 (the middle pinwheel jump) you ca take off (with connection of course :)) and give him his ‘go utnnel’ cue. You were decelreated and a little turned forward, and he had a loss of focus – the loss of focus might have been due to the decel and disconnection… or might have been due to a really interesting distraction LOL!
On the last rep, the connection was also better at 2:19 then he had a moment at 2:24 where he looked committed then changed plans on 6 at the last moment – at first I thought it was just a distraction but then when I played it in slow motion: his change of course came at the very instant you stopped looking at him and looked ahead. he was probably watching you and thought you wanted a blind – this is normal for young dogs to be so quick to come off lines. So definitely support that line to the tunnel with more comnection and motion til he is just about in the tunnel.
>.I may be better off picking small sequences out of the full courses and working on those.
That can totally work!
>>I do have full ring time available on Mondays, Tuesdays and some Fridays. Courses however are set, and I’m not going to take them apart and rebuild them in an hour rental, so I’ll try and pick parts that seem to fit.>>
yes – it doesn’t make sense to take them apart and rebuild them, it would take up all the rental time! So definitely work those courses with the themes in mind, and we can look at that instead of the full courses here!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Great session here, because it helps us really figure out what Watson needs in terms of handling and training. YAY!!!
Sequence 1:
>>My set up has jump 4 slightly off set and the tunnel a bit more curdled so it is not a straight exit to the jump.>>
It might have been offset, but we can convince him to take it anyway 🙂
For that last jump, at :04 – more connection will help, really looking down to him: you were looking ahead and pulling the toy out so he didn’t take the jump. See below for another idea about this pesky jump LOL!Seq 2: Very nice run! The “right” verbal was a tiny bit late (just after his head went into the tunnel) but your physical cue (turning) was perfectly timed so he had no questions about where 4 was here.
Seq 3:
>>Seq #3 Watson missed jump 5 and jump 8 in this sequence. Also had a refusal at #3. I stopped my motion too soon. I may have had too much forward motion on the pinwheel. Need a strong get out cue on 8>>Yes – you did a shorter lead out which put you behind, and you did a very subtle decel at 2-3 that overrode your go tunnel cue (plus you were behind and looking ahead of him, which changes the shoulder position. So for the handling, as you mentioned, keep moving forward til you see him driving to it. And, for the training side since you did say tunnel: we will be working on getting strong tunnel verbals in the next set of games, to help the verbal override motion and make this easier 🙂
:20 – Yes, in the pinwheel the shoulder turn was late (ideally it happens right after he exits the tunnel to start setting up the pinwheel BUT he could have dug in and taken that jump (he was in GO FAST mode LOL!) so you can do a bit of the Lazy Game with him like Levy did in MaxPup, to help Watson understand that we really appreciate it when he takes the jump even when we aren’t perfect 🙂
Motion and Verbal were great to the last jump at :25… but your connection was forward of him as you tossed the toy – so he was not sure which side of you to be on, and took the jump that you were closest to (good boy, that is a good decision :))
Last sequence:
>>Seq #4 I ran the pinwheel instead of the outside jumps on this seq. Watson read the pinwheel nicely.>It was still a really strong sequence! Good body turn before he entered 2 so he exited looking for 3 (yay!) and at :31, look how you were nice and early (definitely in the WOO!) on the shoulder turn to 4 and he took it, no problem. Very nice!
>>He came out of the tunnel very wide at #7 and had trouble finding # 8. >>
At :35, as he we going into the tunnel, you were saying GO TUNNEL GO TUNNEL and you accelerated forward as if you wanted a straight exit… so he processed that and exited straight at :36. Then he saw where you were and worked his fuzzy tail off for find the jump you wanted even thought it would have been easy to go around it. (DOUBLE GOOD BOY, WATSON!!). To get a sweeter turn, the left verbal and turning to the next line all before he goes into the tunnel will help like you did on the 2-3 section of this course.
>>I did not use decel motion cue to get a smooth tight turn and got a refusal at #9>>
At :37, he got pretty close to the wrap jump but then came off it as you started to rotate – I think the motion (I saw some decel) and verbal were all good, so the thing you will want to add to your WOO here is more connection, looking at him more directly in that moment. The question on 7 created a zig zag line, so more connection will help you push him back to the line on 8.
You almost got that last jump! So close! Your connection was MUCH stronger here so yes keep working the big connection. But also, I think this can also become a lazy game moment – send him to the tunnel and kind of stroll past that jump… then reward him when he takes it 🙂 Any time the handler has to be sheer perfection to get a line, we can do more training of the lazy game to help the dogs see the line better 🙂
>>I am proud at how happy and engaged Watson was. I don’t think he noticed my mistakes except for the refusals but he happily kept going. >>
Yes, I thought it was a lovely session! You took the oopsie moments as information, he got rewarded, it was fast and FUN! So his engagement was great.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHellooooo! Welcome back to you, Wizard and Freeway!! It is going to be a fun camp this year 🙂 Enjoy!
TracyGood morning!
Her lazy commitment games look fabulous!
One step sends: She drives to that 2nd jump really well when you give a big step to it, so keep going with the big step to send her away. And keep moving the middle jump further away, but by bit.I think you were closer to the middle jump when she was turning left so keep adding distance on both sides so she drives further and further away. I place a lot of emphasis on this game with small dogs to build massive commitment – she will be running the same courses as the big dogs, so she needs even better commitment because she will have to take more strides 🙂
She was GREAT with the 3rd game with you running!!! Love it! So definitely spread those jumps out a bit more and keep building the distance up. See if you can get up to a 5 or 6 meter distance on this game! You will have to run more, but that is fine too 🙂 And keep throwing the lotus ball out on the line like you did here.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I definitely do try to do a lot of blinds since I don’t have time for fronts with fast Chaz and not a lot of distance.>>
I think with Tali you will have more distance, which gives you more time too – that is why we are already seeing her look so great with the blinds!
Have fun at the cabin!!!!!
TracyGood morning!
Things are looking good here! Her commitment is really strong, so we can look at the smaller details.
Video 1: on the wraps where she didn’t take the jump as a start jump, you can rotate but also step back and look back, indicating behind you, just like we did with those props back in the very first MaxPup 🙂
At :24, you were just too early in general – you can support that wrap by looking behind you but you need to indicate he wrap jump when she lands from the middle jump by facing it, especially when there is no momentum.
Bear in mind that it is not the rotation that creates great wraps… it is the verbal and decel, so you want to remember to decel rather than run then rotate. If you run and then stop in a rotation like at :46, it actually puts you behind the dog even when you were way ahead, because you come to a complete halt.
And, without the decel… she is not really turning til after landing. She can pull this off on a 6″ bar but it will be a lot more obvious on a 20″ bar. For example, watch her from 1:25 – 1:27: she doesn’t collect before takeoff, so she lands facing straight at 1:26 and her hind end swings out as she makes the turn on the flat. Same thing happened at 1:46, even with the big rotation.
The last rep had the most decel in it and the clearest transition – and so she had the best collection on that one too! Nice! So for all of the wraps, run ‘fast forward’ to drive to them and no matter where you are when she is landing from the pinwheel jump… decelerate as you move forward for a few steps, then as she is passing the midway point: rotate and leave for the next line. I think we will then begin to see her collect before takeoff, which will be very helpful as the bars go up.
>>practising them before the rep. Been doing that on each sequence to try to get them right.>>
This is great – do you practice at a run with an invisible dog? That is the best way to practice it 🙂 I find that walking through it does not prepare me for the high speed terror of running the baby dogs.
Video 2: This is also going well! She is totally understanding the blinds!!!
on the blinds, try to be quicker getting your connection to the new side, so your eye contact on the new side is established before she takes off for the middle jump. The easiest way to do this is to keep your wings in! Have your arms tucked into your sides – which makes the blinds quicker because you can just turn your head. When you arms are out, the blind cross process is slower because you first have bring your wing in, then turn, then lift your next wing. You can see the wings out at :44-:45. For the quickest blinds… no wings needed 🙂>>The fronts – well, late and I didn’t stay connected with her on the one side and she cut in behind me – twice.
Yes, this is a bad sequence to do the FCs, the BCs are so much easier on this sequence 🙂 The first FC looked like a BC then you changed to a FC, so it ended up being late, then connection broke. You would also need to be way more lateral on the FC reps to get the FC smoothly, because you need to get to the position sooner to decel and turn your feet. Totally a better sequence for blinds than fronts 🙂
When she went behind you at 2:04 after the wrap, we get a good view of connection. In that moment, you said “go” and you were facing the jump… with her behind you. That means she only saw your back, so she made a decision about what “go” meant, and went with the line of your motion. Good girl! 2:15 and 2:39 were much clearer connection so she knew where to go 🙂
>.I left one comment in – LOL!>>
Ha! Yes! I promise it will be easier when she is NOT jumping 6″ 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Big emotional response was like an understatement – she had a meltdown which was hard to see.
I believe it – you’ll look back someday and think it was hilarious in retrospect but it was probably really not fun in the moment.
I got a bit of video of it – using a big chunk of cheese for CB and a tennis ball for Elektra. I want the cheese and the ball to become super high value for each of them but traditional “shaping” or trying to cue it is too pressurized and not fun at all, so the cheese and ball get ‘inserted’ into these little loops that already have value (don’t ask me why Elektra thinks weaves are more fun than a tunnel) and – this is important – there is a lot of action and the cheese/ball were sandwiched between the fun activity and the high value reward. markers are super useful, because the get it has a pretty reflexive response at this point. If the interaction with the cheese or ball is not perfect? I don’t push it or pressurize it, I just carry on with the loop. This was done before breakfast so the cheese was very interesting.
It takes time and it is a really chill, no pressure approach that builds wonderfully high value in things that don’t originally have value.
>>I don’t know that she will try very hard to find the cookie in the grass.
Big white chunks of cold cheese are appropriately stinky, visible, and they bounce too which seems fun for the dogs 🙂 or a big meatball. You don’t need to do a lot of reps, just a couple.
>>The only thing she likes to look for in the grass is rabbit poo and I draw the line on using that as a treat. Actually, if I handed it to her or suggested that she eat it, she’d probably never eat it again. LOL>>
Ha! My dogs would rather wear the rabbit poop than eat it, but I draw the line at that too 🙂
On the video:
Her commitment is looking strong! That is great, so we can isolate the little details as you move forward:For the verbals, I think we can clarify them a bit to help set the lines (and to help with the bars). You were using ‘jump’ and directionals, I don’t think you need jump and right/left, if right/left means “take the jump and turn right” (you also had a go in there couple of times). If you say your right verbal, for example, as you indicate that middle jump, that can help her sort out the line sooner and makes it earlier. When you said jump before it, the left/right verbal was happening as she was already jumping the middle jump, so it wasn’t really a cue.
As she is passing you for the send, keep connected and you can repeat the right cue, but step away immediately back towards the tunnel – it is that step that will really solidify the ‘soft’ turn because it sets the next line and she will change her striding to get the turn really nicely!
the Lazy game with walking looked really good, and so did the running version! No problem at all with commitment, yay!!!
>> Lots of bars coming down in conjunction with throwing the toy, so looking for ideas to clean that up.>>
Yes, we don’t want her to habituate to dropping bars, so I have a few ideas:
– you can use a bump on the middle jump instead of a bar, as that wa the one that dropped the most. A bump allows you to work on the handling and timing, and allows her to work out her footwork, with no bars down (she dropped the first bar on one rep but she was set up too close)
– you can lock in the bars too so they don’t drop (but she will still feel them when she touches them, and most dogs *do* process that and change what they are doing)
– bending grids with you running and swinging the toys 🙂
– adding markers for the toy throws, so she knows where to look when you throw it (lots of words :)) and also, you can place the toy out on the line. That still challenges her to commit because she can still bypass the jump to grab the toy, but the placement minimizes the distraction of the toy throw happening while she is in the airAnd since the distraction of the toy being thrown caused a lot of bar drops, you can play a bit of a proofing game 🙂 here is an idea of Voodoo doing it as a 2 year old dog. Your distraction an be the arm movement of throwing the toy (but don’t throw it til you know she has not touched the bar). The 2-failure rule is in place here – if she fails twice, dial back the distraction:
have fun!
TracyGood morning and welcome! It is so fun to see the Brittanys well-represented with your crew 🙂 fingers crossed for some normal summer temperatures for all of us!!
Have fun 🙂
Tracy
