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Welcome back!!!! I can’t believe he is almost 20 months – baby dog is growing up beautifully!! Have fun with these games!
TracyWelcome!!!! Fingers crossed for an easy winter. You can upgrade if you like, working spots are not limited 🙂
TracyHi! It will be easier to make your schedule when you see the games – the foundation games do not involve jumping so you can start those with pretty frequent sessions. And the first part of the organizers do not involve jumping, so you can do a session of those and a session of zig zags. When everything involves jumping, though, later in the class, you will want to alternate days and not double up to avoid over-jumping the dog.
Tracy
Hi!
Good work on both of these courses – I see tremendous improvements in his turns and responsiveness to the cues! Very cool!!!
Course 1 –
Looking at the opening:
You played with a BC 2-3 and also the FC 2-3. Now that he is coming on from a right turn on 1, either worked well, but both can be done closer to jump 3. Your timing was consistently good on both of them, and so was your connection. Your motion was forward towards the a-frame, so he was following that line of motion and that is why he jumped longer, even with the really good timing. You can see he is driving directly to the line you are setting, good boy!!!He had a little question about taking the bar on the 4 jump as you ran past it -so much countermotion! When you were looking at him, he wanted to follow you. But when you shifted your connection to the landing spot and supported that with you arm back? Perfect! And dropping the reward in on the landing spot really helps, a great example of the handling & rewarding was at 1:02, really lovely 🙂
The 5-6-7-8 looked good each time! And letting him go straight on the DW til it can be braced more is a good idea.
Looking at the section after the DW:
The 9-10 blind is really strong! Looking at the exit of jump 10, where he was landing wide looking to the line nearer the a-frame… I think, for him, decel alone is not enough turn info. For example at 2:16, you did a decel and turned, but the post turn still showed the line he landed looking at. So, a spin or ‘flind’ (front/blind) might be perfect: as he is landing from 9, you can decel and rotate into a FC to cue 10 then begin moving to 11; When you see collection for 10, finish the move with the blind to put him back on your left side. That might provide the best turn info in that section.The teeter angle was a little off on the first run but it was perfect for the rest, and he was really showing some strong teeter independence on this course and on the next one too! Yay!!! He was looking at *something* past the teeter on the way to it a couple of times LOL! but his end position was great.
On the jump after the teeter, the FC to RC on 13 works and you can also do a serp on the landing side. For the FC, stay close to the jump, that is when he was most successful. When you were further from 13 and had to move towards it, the cue was not as clear (like at 1:59) when he dropped the bar trying to adjust for the RC.
The layering element looked great each time: fast and independent! YES!
On 17, the blind cross after the threadle wrap was REALLY nice at 2:06 and 2:26!!! And with such independent layering, I bet you can get to a blind on the tunnel exit to push to the backside of the 17 jump – the serp on 13 would be best for that because it puts you closer to 17 and you can send to the 14 tunnel and leave immediately for the blind. Either way, the layering independence sets up a really strong ending line!
Course 2
Really good openings here, with the BC and the FC elements – I think maybe you tried the FC to see if it would be tighter, but I think the line of motion was what was widening his line a bit 2-3: from the entry wing of 2, run more towards 3 and less across the bar of 2 for a better line each time. The BC is probably easiest to get that done.The 4-5-6-7 line looked fabulous, he is the Layering King! Fun!
One thing that was happening on this course was a bit of crowding the backside approaches 🙂 You were pushing him off the line a bit, so he had some questions. One example is at jump 8 after the layering:
You can see the crowding at :14, where you are running on a parallel line past the wing, so he was like: “do I cut in front and take it? or run past it?”
And when you held back a little at :29 and 1:05 then drove forward he was still a little unclear.So, ideally you would be running a line that shows the entry wing a lot more: for a wrap, the line is to where the wing meets the bar, and to a slice, it would be center of the bar (unless you are doing a takeoff side slicing RC, then you would go to where the wing and the bar meet). And if you get there early? Stay there til he is past you and turning to look at the bar.
The 8 jump would set up a better line as a slice there, but you got the wraps. I think that is what you wanted, but it was hard to tell 🙂 You can get the slice pretty without crowding the entry but sending him on the 5-6-7 line and layering the 18 jump to do the backside push from waaaay far away from the entry wing of 8. Then a German (serp/blind) on 8. You can also get that without layering the 18 jump.
More really good distance on the teeter here!! Just be sure he is not releasing on the ‘good’, I think there was a moment or two of that :
He had some questions on the 11-12 line, and it was similar to his question on 8 – as you left 11, you were moving forward and crowding the line to 12 so he didn’t quite know where to be at 1:35, for example (watch his head looking back and forth LOL!!
So to get the line to 12, leave 11 sooner and run to where the wing and bar meet on the landing side, so he has a full visual line to the wing – and hold that position til he is past you. And to get the tight wrap on 12 instead of the slice at 1:52 – rotate your feet as he is passing you (kind of like what you did at 1:12, but with less twist of the upper body). He sliced at 1:52 because you were facing the a-frame til he took off. You were earlier with the foot rotation at 2:51 and he read the wrap a lot better! Yay! So add in that rotation timing with showing him the full line to the backside and it will be perfect.
The RC on 13 worked well because he is so good at layering – a FC on the 12 exit would get you even further ahead. You got to a threadle/throwback on 16 (he was BEAUTIFUL with his turns there) but it sets up a really hard DW entry. Wrapping 16 to set the straight line to the DW entry is more ideal: with his layering confidence, you can easily get to the threadle wrap (to his right) or you can probably also get to a BC on the tunnel exit of 15 and do a push wrap on 16.
Great job on these! I think the last several weeks have shown some really significant improvements in how well he is responding to your cues and driving his lines – such a good balance!!! Super!!!!
TracyGood morning!
I am so glad you took this class! You did an amazing job working through everything and and embracing the challenges. It was an absolute pleasure to watch you all summer!!!
>> I had dreams of making it to national events and being very competitive,
You are well on your way! I am looking forward to cheering for you and Nox!!
>>When I got Nox, I thought we were going to do amazing things
You ARE going to do amazing things! Exciting times ahead!
>>The saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” really resonates with me right now>>
Yes, so true!! After all of these years, the one thing that I know is that there is so much more I need to learn. LOL!!! The learning is endless and the sport keeps evolving, which is what makes it so fun.
I am so glad you are excited for the future, both as an instructor and as a competitor. The sport of agility needs you in both capacities! Your passion to learn and teach and compete is exactly what continues to drive this sport forward <3
I am looking forward to seeing you in person some time soon!!!!
Tracy
Hi! The next chapter is coming! It will be a series of smaller chapters, actually 🙂 Stay tuned! More will be posted next week 🙂
TracyHi!
Based on what we know now about brain development during canine adolescence, the brain is a weird thing at this stage LOL! Sometimes the youngsters are perfectly fine with what we were doing, like noise and movement. And then they are suddenly freaked out by it, for no discernible reason. That is just the adolescent brain doing its adolescent thing, so the best thing to do is proceed very slowly and with no pressure 🙂Tracy
Hi!
>.Here’s where we are at with his weave training, working on showing him different entries and some motion. This video is from about 2 weeks ago, I’ve added entries out of a tunnel since. Also probably time to add some more poles – maybe?
He is doing well! He definitely liked it more when you were moving more (when you started from the double jump).Before adding more poles, add more speed so he can sort out his foot work while moving faster. By adding the tunnel before the poles, I think you are already adding speed and that is great (you can open the 2x2s slightly if he has any footwork questions). You can set up a speed loop: tunnel, 4 or 6 poles, then another tunnel – that adds speed AND challenges him to stay in the poles when a delicious tunnel is visible past them 🙂
>>My concentration has been on teaching him skills and now I’m going to have to work on getting his distraction control under control before I did too deep a hole – hey, he’s only been with me for 8 months. >>
You are correct – he has only been with you for 8 months and has made AMAZING progress!! He has some impressive skills already, and he is speedy too! And yes, the next step is to work on the focus stuff but you are doing that too, with the CU games, and in the class. Having to focus when he can clearly see the other dogs moving is VERY challenging, but when he learns to do that, he will be able to do anything! Plus he is an adolescent, which means his brain is still developing 🙂 Things will get easier when he reaches maturity.
>>I can teach skills and sequencing on mornings after I’ve build the course when it’s quiet in the barn, going to use the actual class for working patterns and simple stuff under distraction>>
This is a great plan 🙂 Skills are easy – distractions are much harder and definitely worth using the barn for.
>>Got him into a seminar in early November with a Lee Gibson at the green turf facility, don’t know who he is, but I always learn something>
He is a British instructor and judge – he’s a nice guy and strong instructor, I think you will have fun!!
>>Looking forward to what you come up with next -my favorite “virtual” instructor
Thanks! Stay tuned for my next set of crazy stuff (insert evil laugh here hahahaha)
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>>I took the DW ramps off and they were on the ground…so funny that he ran the ramp instead of 18🤣
HA!! That is hilarious. The dude loves his dog walk LOL!!!
>>Always helpful feedback…you notice everything!
That is the magic of coffee and slow motion video 🙂 You two looked great all summer!!!
>>What upcoming course do you think would be helpful for us?
As we go into fall and winter, I will be doing short courses with handling based on course trends – they will begin with a live seminar like the zooms here, then everyone gets a few weeks to work the sequences. The first one is on October 29th, stay tuned! There will be a few more scattered through the winter, because the weather makes it all so ‘iffy’ 🙂
>>Also, I want to send your dogs some of the tug toys that I make. What’s your address? I’ll just send a variety…any favorite colors? Fur preference (shearling, bunny, raccoon tails)?>>
Wow, that is so kind!!! My dogs would love any bunny or raccoon tail things 🙂 And blue & yellow are out favorite colors, but any colors are great 😉 My address is 181 Chestnut Grove Road, Callaway, VA 24067.
Thank you!!! I am looking forward to seeing you again in class soon 🙂
TracyHi!
I heard abut the heat wave – insane!!! I am glad it is over.All of the wing wraps back to the tunnel looked great! The addition of going PAST the tunnel was harder but when she was on your left, you kept moving and kept connected and she got it 🙂 Yay!
She didn’t expect the wing there behind the tunnel, but found it and then found a great line to the tunnel entry.On the other side, when she was on your right: you were decelerating more at the tunnel entry and closing your shoulders forward (like at :54 and the next rep), so she thought you wanted the tunnel 🙂 When you had better motion and maintained connection at 1:28, she understood to go past the tunnel. Super!
>>Got it at the end as I changed my path a little.
Your path was a little further from the tunnel, but you were also more connected and moved more – all of that helped her a lot.
She did really well with the teeter plankrobatics! You can reward her in the middle when she turns around too, not just at the end. She seems confident on almost all of it, so you can change the height of one of the tables, lowering it a little so it tips more. My only suggestion is that with more tip, she gets on the teeter when it is touching the table (not with the board up n the air) because it was too hard to balance when it is not touching the table and falls out from under her when she steps on it. So you can either start all the reps on the side that naturally touches the table, or you can hold the other side down when you want to start on that side 🙂
>>As usual there is some unusual background noise. Party music down the road this time…>>
I was wondering about that – I turned off the volume here for a minute to figure out if I had a T on somewhere in the house hahaha!!
>>What do you suggest for the pups next ?
I’m auditing the FACE class offered and looking forward to some interesting info there.>>Got FACE will be very useful! And in coming weeks, you will see a series of handling classes that will take us through the winter – shorter classes, so folks can fit them into their schedules.
Great job here all summer!!!! Fritzi looks wonderful!
Tracy
