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Hi!
The threadles are going really well! He did SUPER well ignoring the cookie until it was time to eat it – did you see the look at the cookie target at :52? LOL!! Good boy! And the placed reward is doing its job of getting his head lower. He did well coming in from different angles with you moving. As he passes the entry wing, you can keep your threadle arm in position until he turns his head to the bar. That way you won’t accidentally build in any shoulder turn which indicates he should jump – and leads to more independence in the future 🙂
Serps went well too and he was picking up speed – and getting a little high in the hind end over the bar 🙂 Since he has a bar in this setup, you can also work on set point jumping stuff separately so he gets his hind end pushing off more and more balanced.
The tunnel rocking horses also went great! I think he might be looking at you because you are not full out running, so there is an element of decel he is reading perhaps especially when you are not as far ahead. But in your defense, it is hard to run in dirt/winter boots/winter coat LOL! So yes, you can accelerate more but also, you can throw the reward past the barrel as he passes you, to help emphasize that you really like it when he looks ahead and drives ahead 🙂 And with more experience, he will continue to look ahead more and more.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! This went really well! I am loving how fast she is driving those lines!!!
I think on the first 2 runs here, the reward was placed out at the end of the line which helped her for sure. It was a little close to the last jump on the first run which is why she dropped the bar, but it was further away on the 2nd run and was perfect!
>A couple of times she has gone round the last jump but I’m thinking that is just baby stuff.>
Yes, young dog stuff as she is learning the line for sure! She did that here at :26 – I think it was a combination of the reward not being already out on the line (so she had an eyeball on you :)) and she saw you getting ready to throw it, so curled in a bit. But no worries – she will begin to trust that the reward will be out there and keep looking forward (like on the last run here)
Definitely keep throwing the toy on the line, and you can randomize it a bit – sometimes it lands after the last jump, sometimes it lands between the last two jumps, etc. That will keep her looking forward for the jumps.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The countermotion exits to the serps are looking good! She is so tuned into where the reward gets placed that she turned back to the original side on the first rep of the new side. But then she got it nicely after that 🙂
She had a little trouble tugging (1:40 – 1:50 approx) because it was a short toy and as she was trying to grab it, you were moving it out of reach and then your hands were right there. Using a longer toy that she can grab easily will really help!
Using food went well and on that section you were also moving away from the cone sooner. Super!! She is ready for the next step, where you show her the full serp motion by moving through the line then releasing her as you get to the exit cone (or wing, you can use wings too).
The decel game is looking strong too!! Great job mixing in some stay rewards. She was beginning to release when you connected to her after leading out and stopping in position, so definitely add in stopping, praising, take a few heartbeats… then either release or throw a reward back.
For the extension reps, more connection very directly to her eyes and being closer to the wing will help prevent misses like at :31 (and almost misses like at 1:37) when you are ahead/past the wing. She did well with the extension when you were not as far ahead.
She was perfect with the collection on the right turn from the very first rep! Super! The left turn side was harder – it might have been because it was the harder side or the end of the session and she was brain-tired 🙂 So start with left turns (dog-on-right) on the next session and see how it goes.
Great job here in class! She looks fantastic and I am excited to build on this in MaxPup 2!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Chiro didn’t really have a sense of what might have caused the soreness; could have been jumping off the bed (hard to keep her from doing that), playing hard or just generally being Jazz. >
Yes, puppies… could have been anything! And if it doesn’t resolve, test for tick stuff because even though it might not normally be an issue in your area, it is becoming more prevalent everywhere unfortunately.
>Chiro said Jazz would self monitor her activity level on her own, so no need for me to confine her (thank god). >
I am glad she is not needing to be restricted!!! I chuckled about self-monitoring… Jazz is a good girl to self-monitor because none of my dogs would self-monitor LOL!!!!
>She’ll have a recheck in early January. I went over her pretty thoroughly when I groomed her the other day, no indication of soreness, >
Excellent!!! Chiro can really work wonders.
>and given her exuberance and high level of play etc I decided to go ahead and “work” with her again. Played with the Tunnel Wrap Rocking Horse exercise. She loves this one!>
Yay! She looked like she was feeling fantastic: super fast, happy to engage, and tugging! I think her speed surprised you on the first rep! But then you were more prepared for the little rocket after that 🙂
This game is all about connection in the early stages, until she has enough experience to predict that she should keep going to the next wing even if you are not perfect. The main suggestion here to get her to the wing after the tunnel is to look back to her eyes and keep your arm back/shoulder open to her. That will show her which side of the wing you want (she was sometimes unsure of which side to be on).
The arm position is actually the critical element from what we see here in this session. I think you were looking back at her on all the reps – but if your arm was pointing forward, she didn’t see the connection and the line of your shoulders pulled her off the wing. When your arm was a bit further back and she could see the line of the shoulders pointing to the side of the wing you wanted, she got it every time!
My favorite moment on this video is at :55 – that is where she was exiting the tunnel and you were looking at her and your arm was pointing back to her. So she zipped to the wing smoothly with a ton of speed, and no questions. So having your arm back to her nose will really help!
>Really clear to me that I need to get my verbals out sooner cuz I can’t outrun her.>
Yes, early verbals help! And you can use the verbals to enhance connection by pointing at her and saying them directly to her when you say them.
When you pointed ahead of her, she always came to the threadle wrap side of the wing. This is good to know for when you work on threadle wraps: closing your shoulder/pointing ahead is a natural threadle wrap cue for her!
The other place to connect is on the wing exit. When you got the wrap but then took off – if there was no connection (like at :44 and :58) she read it as a spin and went to the hand opposite the tunnel. So adding more connection (specifically having your arm low and pointing back to her cute nose) will help her drive back to the tunnel.
>Curious how you know Randy Rainbow???>
I love Randy Rainbow! I don’t know him personally (wish I did!) but he has recorded messages in the past for flyball team members through a service called Cameo, so this is an offshoot of that.
Tracy
This is great! I knew there was a 45-second rule, but I thought it was from the Go. Thanks for the clarification!!!
> I figure if I got Roots to the point that he can handle coming in like a normal dog, AND I’m spending quite a bit of Beat’s early days making sure she is a model citizen with this, then I have a leg to stand on making this request that people train their dogs for this!>
Yes, you are also leading by example which is critically important. They are already seeing the results with Beat even though she is a baby dog. The comments in the background of your videos are always stuff like “wow!” “She’s so fast!” “nice turn!” and “good girl!!!”, so people are watching and seeing the results. So fun!
T
High res, slow motion video should show us about the dew claws! Filming in slow motion produces clear video (better than filming at normal speed then slowing it down. I will try to get some on turf because I have access to turf AND decent weather next week 🙂
T
>I included a spiel about GETTING INTO THE RING and not waiting by the gate for the go. I encouraged folks to do NFC runs and work on this routine if they were worried about their dogs. And people did it! I thought I was being annoying and nagging, but people said they were grateful for me explaining the rules around it and actually being open to folks working on THAT as their goal for their NFC runs.>
You are awesome!!! I feel badly for the judges when people are waiting. And as you know, there is a lot of awkward interaction among handlers outside the ring: the judge has told us when to come in, but then the handler before me tells me not to come in until her dog is on leash for reasons like “her dog doesn’t like intact males” or might ‘visit’ or… sigh.
(Side note: In agility, depending on the needs of the dog, we can wrap below the dew claw and just get the feet/pad. I did that with Elastikon for a while and ran like that at the US Open! I think Laura Derrett somewhere said we could not wrap the feet but my dog ran at the biggest event with feet wrapped and approved by Greg, so….. another thing on the list to inquire about)
Hi!
>The dewclaw question is more in reference to the fact that the wraps prevent them from using the dewclaw. We went to all these lengths proving that we should not remove dewclaws because of how important they are for the dog.>
I am a big fan of dewclaws! We need to get close up slow motion video of how the dogs are using them in agility, wrapped and unwrapped. We have this type of video in flyball but not in agility, as far as I know.
> Wrapping kinda mimics removing the dew claw, though of course they still have all those muscles in the forearm working to stabilize the carpus and elbow even if the toe can’t actually move. >
This is where I would want to see video: how much does the wrap change things? I know they use their feet a lot more than we would think when wearing wraps, so I would love to see it in agility. I believe the toe does actually move – let me see if I can dig up good close up that we have in flyball.
>I’ve always thought dogs probably did use their dews to help stabilize them on dog walks and teeters too, although a friend (the judge for this trial) is currently experimenting with the Out N Out wraps for her BC as he was struggling to extend on the dog walk and in one session with the wraps he is offering striding patterns that he hasn’t been confident enough to try in a year (since inuring a different toe). So maybe the dew claw isn’t as important for that as I thought?>
Interesting!!! I have used and discarded commercial re-usable wraps because they simply were never as good as powerflex. And yes, we crazy flyball people have wrapping patterns for toes to support, allow movement, and prevent injuries because… whippets. LOL! Toes are an entirely new obsession of mine because, well, whippets.
It is a fascinating topic and I want to ask the people doing the studies (Dr. Markley and Dr. Jackson) if maybe we can do something with wraps!
T
Good morning!
> you flyball people might be on to something lol>
That made me laugh out loud 😂🤣Flyball people know a whole lot about traction – maybe I will send you how my Mal/Whippet mix gets wrapped for flyball and running agility on turf. There is a whole system with PowerFlex, rubber, etc. LOL!!!
>After 2-3 reps, I could tell instantly she was more comfortable. >
For sure! She was like “Wow, I can GRIP!” Good girl! Plus the wrap matching the toy is an automatic bonus. You could hear the gripping!
On the run on the first video:
> I probably should have stuck to things with less speed since she’s never RUN with the wraps on. I think that’s why she was running around things (and jumping up and biting me, she’s done that at home too with the wraps on just with high arousal playing in the house, she’s still not a huge fan of having them put on), still adjusting to having them on and running full out for the first time. This was also her first time leaving a toy toy at the start line (I had one in my pocket as well) and no issue there.>
I think it was a combination of 3 things: new running shoes :), the toy behind her with the leash, and a blooper on the release. At :55 you were so lateral when you released that both Beat and I thought your were going to cue a right turn and not a straight line. She had a bit of a Big Mad there. So lead out a little more and definitely on the straight line there to help her out.
The speed and layering after the first tunnel was a bit too hard – try not to stop as that can be frustrating to her. Try to just get on a line, connect, maybe slow down a bit like you did on the next line after the 2nd tunnel – NICE! Then she finished strong!
2nd run started off GREAT and I love the big party you gave her! You were connected and smooth. I am liking her jumping form on that back line – she is getting comfy on the turf! She didn’t quite turn tight enough out of the tunnel at 2:54 but that was a combination of a cue that could have been sooner and stronger, and a bit of balancing on the turf to make the turn without slipping.
Lovely ending!> Her second run though I thought her jumping looked the best it ever has here, even with some slightly tougher sequences (it was combined Speedstakes, so senior level). So much more balanced and powering out of turns like she should.>
Totally agree!!! Big difference from last time and she is not even a fully educated jumper yet – still a baby dog!
>When I took the wraps off, you could totally see where the vet wrap was “burned” and abraded where the stop pad was!>
Yep – welcome to the obsessing on where the wrap shows wear when you remove it! If it burns through to the pad, you can add more layers. And I am glad that it was her wraps that were burned and not her pads! And as she jumps higher and adds even more power, you will see changes in the wear on the wraps. Was she only wearing wraps on her fronts? You might consider backs too – I can show you some photos of the wear on the back leg wraps from decel on turf. It is astounding!
>One thing that FEELS wrong about the wraps is that her dewclaws are covered. Any thoughts about leaving a small hole for the dewclaw/toe to stick out?>
That is a valid question – anecdotally, the only dew claw injuries I have had in agility were when the dog was not wrapped and both times they happened in a tunnel. When that same dog was wrapped – no more dew claw injuries and he was still able to use his feet properly. So I think the wrap is protective of the dew claws but still allows for full use of the entire lower leg assembly including toes, dews, etc. In flyball, we definitely want the dew claws covered and (knock wood) I have never had a dew claw injury in flyball (or seen/heard of one) with a wrapped dog.
>Her ring entry and exits were about perfect too! It helps that we mostly wait outside the main room and just come in when we are next to go, but she needed much less meatball-ing in those final moments waiting and stayed on the toy even when the next dog was starting. This is definitely a great location to set her up for success with that aspect.>
Excellent!!! This is great because entries and exits are hard for young dogs. She is doing GREAT!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The decel game is going well – it looks like he is reading the difference between extension and collection, and that is what we want 🙂 He was trotting into the collection on some of the reps, especially more on your left side. It is possible that he was anticipating it based on subtle things in your movement, or maybe he can’t see enough connection with the winter coat. No worries! You can let this game ‘rest’ until we add more motion (running!) into it in MaxPup 2 🙂The stays are doing really well! He seems to be VERY excited to be working the skill and really quite solid. One little anticipatory blooper but the rest were strong, even with all the obstacles around!
With the treat ball, be careful not to develop an additional physical cue of holding your arm up high in the “I am about the throw” position 🙂 That can accidentally get built in, so you can now move away from him with your arms in a natural walking position and see how he does.The ‘dish’ session looked great! I think he is totally ready for you to add in the strike a post concept where he is in a stay, the cookie is in the dish, you are in serp position: and you say ‘dish’ right before he gets to your hand to help create that in-then-out movement. I am betting he will find that easy now, so then it can go to the arena – and if it is still easy there, add the jump in!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
The moving serp session went great! Super successful!
At the very beginning when you put the toy down: trust hi more! Can you move him into position without holding his collar? Just reward a lot. I bet he can do it! He did it perfectly at 1:37 and after that! Good pup!
Tiny detail: At :21 you might have been a little too close to the jump if he had to run over your foot LOL! (He hit the cone on the next rep so you might a shade too close there too). On the other side it looks like he had a little more room (6 inches or so makes a big difference) and he did great.
There was a little blooper when you changed sides but then you made it more obvious before the release on the next rep (bigger arm movement and you held it longer before the release) and he did great. You might have also been looking at the target but it was hard to tell for sure (your back was to the camera). Looking at the target is helpful!
>. I did not abuse the raccoon like my friends lmao.>
Ha! I just sent a message to the racoon toy makers to see if they could turn them into bottle tugs. I have a squirrel with a bottle in it and all dogs are WILD for the crunch of bones that the bottle brings LOL!!! Gross. I think he had a bottle tug here? So he might like crunchy bones too
Your connection was great on the tunnel exit and that made a HUGE differnce to his commitment! And the decel helped cue the turn too – lovely!
And look at you trusting him after you put the toy down and not holding his collar to move him to the start spot! Yay! The best part of the session was right after that at 1:27 where he was facing the toy and you cued the tunnel… and he went into the tunnel. GOODEST BOY!!!!! That was hard and he nailed it. Super!!!!
The only little question was on the tunnel cue on the first rep – you just started the toy throw too early which turned your shoulders too – so he locked onto the throw. No worries, you adjusted the timing after that and he did great on all of it.
Great job!!
Tracy
Hi!
This was a busy location! But he did great! He seemed to easily move with you away from the toys/food, and then he was able to do a hand touch too! Yay! What other simple tricks does he know? You can ask for a few different things now! He did look at a dog in the distance moving by, but that’s normal. And he didn’t go towards the dog – good boy!!!!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
What a gorgeous view on the video! NZ is so beautiful!
This game went really well! He was very keen to play all elements of it, even with access to the great outdoors!
Only 2 small suggestions:
You can call him sooner after the start cookie (as long as you have had enough time to get pretty far away from him :))And you can decel earlier: start to slow down no later than when he is halfway to you. You were decelerating when he was one stride away from you, so he would go a little past you because it took him a moment to process the cues.
>At one point, when he’s next to me, I stand on his leash because there’s a car coming, he leaps and gets a jerk, but he wasn’t moving when I stood on the leash>
Because he has gotten several jerks in different sessions, I think it is time to stop letting him drag the leash 🙂 You can have him wear a tab, or just hold his harness in the moments when you want to keep him safe from a car. Dragging the leash leads you to step on it as a default, so I think we can re-train you not to do it by not having it on him 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did well with the longer session but you can see some mental fatigue (kind of wandering past the hand target) at the end so definitely remember to set a timer!
About the hand target:
>. He didn’t seem to be driving for my hand, so maybe spend some time just building value for the hand target?
He was great when there was no toy on the ground. When the toy was on the ground, the mechanics became important: At 2:53 and 3:03 for example, as he was turning back to you, you dropped the toy – so that became the focal point. Ideally, the toy is on the ground before you even throw the start cookie so it is not moving at all. Then as he turns to you, you can make the hand obvious (shake it and look at it) and I think that will make it easier when the toy was on the ground! That was one of the last serp reps and he did really well when you did that!
> I tried to throw a couple of threadle slices in at the end, but it was a bit of a struggle, i thought it was better to just stop because the session had gone long. >
Yes, it was good to end – I think he will be more successful when you start threadles at the beginning of a session.
Nice work!
Tracy
