[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

I am so excited to see you at the camp! YAY!! I promise not to freak Ripley out by acting like he knows me hahaha

>> I’d love to hear more about the resilience training you were mentioning. I feel like all dogs need it. Rip goes the opposite direction of Dellin and gets frustrated with me when he knows something’s gone wrong. >>

It is fascinating to look at the behavior outside of the operant conditioning framework we have been using all these years. I will totally put together some more thoughts on the resilience conditioning! Turns out I have been doing some of it all along (some of it was intentional, some of it was accidental but I am going to pretend it was purposeful hahaha!) It is basically like the dogs need a toolbox of resilience skills that they can draw from, either with our help or by themselves because sometimes we humans are too busy screwing up the handling 🙂

I have been insanely lucky to have gotten hooked up with the Barking Brains and Behavior Vets people in the past year, and it has really changed how I view some things. In particular, the Chief Science Officer/neuroscientist/DVM can explain what is happening in the brain in a really accessible way (and is great for those of us that love to geek out haha) The teeter question from Dellin? Has nothing to do with the teeter itself, and more to do with where her brain is at this moment. The questions from Ripley? Same basis. The neuroscience that is underneath the behavior is driving her responses, not the teeter or anything the momma did. Fascinating from the outside perspective, but *challenging* to be the owner/handler/trainer, right?!?!

>>So, even though it looks very different, it’s the same emotional basis (lack of clarity, confusion, worry, etc.) and then expressing those emotions in a way that may not be super productive and happy making.>>

Totally agree! And even though the behavior is different in terms of arousal state, it is really all the same in the brain from what the scientist folks tell me 🙂 It is helpful info from the dog, as long as we have the resilience conditioning in place along with some other things that we trainers consider to be operant but also manipulate what is happening in the brain.

Also, we need to remember we are working with adolescent dogs and their adolescent brains… I can relate! I used to teach adolescent male humans and oh wow, did they sometimes have out-sized emotional responses to minor frustrations. The joys of the adolescent brain 🙂 I am pretty sure I was no gem as an adolescent either LOL! So part of it is that the adolescent brain cannot process some of the complex tasks we ask our adolescent dogs to do as we train them to compete. Most dogs debut in the ring right smack in the middle of the adolescent period. The behavior/scientist types think we are NUTS to do that LOL! I mean, they are not wrong…

I am also working on a DOSE (dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins) protocol to bring dogs back from a stressful event as quickly as possible, for working or performance dogs, without any long-lasting associations with the environment or training. So far, I have used it a grand total of one time (with a MaxPup grad who had 2 really stressful things happen simultaneously in a flyball run, and got really upset). Worked like a charm and he came back an hour later as if nothing had happened. My nerdy self was very happy, as was the dog and handler LOL!!!

Stay tuned for more!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I love the animal audience! She is going to think agility trials are very quiet compared to home life LOL!

The first video looked great. You can rotate sooner on the right wrap (FC) on the first rep – you faced forward a little bit too long so her turn was a bit wider. But that might have been a product of the smaller spacing – you can spread it out to give you time to indicate 2 as she is jumping 1, then decel and rotate before she passes you. The rotation on the left turn on rep 2 (spin) and also on rep 3 was earlier, so she had a gorgeous turn on those.

>> I see on the video that I started the last sequence on the tunnel then on to #1-#6. When I watch the BC #4-#5 I’m running into #5 which looks and feels super awkward. Not sure she needs all that “help”>>

No worries about starting with the tunnel, she enjoyed it! The wrap and the BC also looked good here. I agree that she might not need the help on 5 in this situation – she reads lines really well, so after the blind you can connect and move up the line – I bet she finds it perfectly 🙂

The sheep were hilarious on the 2nd video – so angry! Maybe they don’t like forced front crosses?

>> First efforts were spoiled by my twitching early. So I worked a bit and came back next day working on one jump away from the sequence. I’ve included that whole session here so you can see how its going. Not sure if I should stay on the one jump a bit longer or ?>>

The session went well, there was really no early twitching at all, and she read everything really well. You did each cue and she really only had one question (see below), reading the FFC, the threadles and the lead out push correctly eachtime. Yay! So since you are not twitching anymore, you can move this to the sequences 🙂 You can put a leash on the ground to help know when to move, so you don’t move too soon 🙂 Her stays looked great and click/treat to you for lining her up properly to face the line you wanted!

Two things from the video: you started off being a little too visible outside of the wing, then you moved yourself over so that most of you was behind the wing (for the FFC and threadles), with your arm being what mostly showed. That was the best position (such as at 1:05) and that really helped the cues. When you do the throwbacks, try not to move backwards as much. You can (figuratively) throw her back behind you like you did at 2:10, that was great!

She only had one question and I don’t think it was because you moved too soon – it was on the cross arm threadle at 3:29. She almost took the front side even though you were relatively stationary. Hmmmm…. she had no questions at :26 when you did the one-arm threadle, but you were also more visible outside the wing on that one. So try splitting the difference – be in a position where more of you is behind the wing, and use the one-arm threadle, and see if she still has a question.

But yes, totally move to the sequences with this skill 🙂 And we will be looking at more videos until Sept 15.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

I think the live class sequences are fun to work on, no rush to get to package 5 🙂

This session was A Tale Of Three Shoulder Positions. It was very subtle and it is also a good example of how dogs seem to see EVERYTHING. So interesting!!
Looking at the three reps, I froze the video as she was over 2 to see what she saw that produced 3 different responses:

At :05, your shoulders and chest were clearly pointing to 3 and your arm was down (and you were connected). Your arm did come up, but it was after she was on the line. She knew where to go and powered up the line.

At :17, as she was over 2, your shoulders and chest were turned to the tunnel and your arm was very high. So she trotted to the tunnel, seeming to say: “your voice is saying one thing but your shoulders are saying another, so….. tunnel.” LOL!

At :27, you had a mix of the 2: shoulders & chest more to the #3 jump but arm a little high, so she went to the jump but was not entirely convinced.

She votes for the info you delivered on the first rep, where you faced the #3 jump longer and with a lower arm. I am not sure if you took one more step or not, but one more step will totally help set the line and you will still easily be waiting for her at 5.

>>I realized later that #5 was supposed to be the back side. Actually, I had to pull her over to go over the front, and I was up there in plenty of time, so I don’t think a back side would have been a problem>>

Totally agree – the front of 5 is harder so the back will be even easier 🙂 

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> The lalala cue is his left turn jump cue. I thought it seemed like in the opening he needed to turn (curve), not just run straight which is why I was giving him that cue.

Makes sense! It is not wrong to do that, but you might not need todo it (your position and motion in those spots cue the gentle lefts really clearly). And if you don’t use it, you have a moment to take a breath 🙂 and also that will allow the other verbals to be more salient because they will really pop out as he is running, making them easier to process.

>>His dig dig cue is his wrap to the left. We were having a hard time in that spot and then when he turned the other way, I wondered if that was better for him. Your notes on how to work on that spot make sense and we will definitely try that.>>

Keep me posted! The timing falls into the “earlier than you think” category but then when you get it locked in, he will turn beautifully.

>> However, it won’t be for a little while as we are currently in New Brunswick at the UKI Canadian Open (just arrived this evening).>>

Have a blast!!! The courses looked terrific.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Does he understand some wing wraps? You can do the threadle wraps versus regular wraps on wings. And also the invisible dog walk games 🙂 with the wing past the tunnel rather than a jump – he is too young to jump but we can introduce some concepts on tunnels and wings!

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> So much of them went well. >>

I totally agree! So many great parts and the hardest stuff just needed a little tweak or a little more dog training.

>>I “used”Tina as well. That’s the stuff I’ve been trying to do more of. Layering and distance

Yes, that was helpful to have someone else to throw the reinforcement for the layering – that was a dog training element that needed rewards. The layering and distance is becoming a big part of course design lately, so that is why I am including a whole lot 🙂

Looking at the videos:

Course 1:

>> I need to be so far ahead at 3 to get both backsides, but how do I get there?

This opening is all about moving forward the whole time, trusting your commitment, and being able to cue the backside slices from at least halfway across the bar: send to 1, send to 2 then run past the exit wing of 3 as close as possible to both get you ahead and show her which direction to go. You were helping a little too much by waiting at 2 a little and sending to 3 from the near the entry wing – so as you ran to the exit, you ended up running sideways (parallel to the bar of 3). That is why she thought you wanted the tunnel (your motion was showing that). And it is also why it was hard to ge the connection and the send to the backside at 4: if you didn’t get past the wing of 3 before she took off for 3, it was really hard to get 4. And then you get caught between the uprights at 4. So this opening is all about being able to cue the backside (especially at 3) from the center of the bar or even further over towards the exit wing. Lots of trusting and verbals and connection while you run forward. 🙂

You can give her a brake arm on the jump between the frame and DW, so she turns before takeoff – release from the a-frame with the directional and brake arm, then get outta there all before she takes off so she reads the line to the DW.

Super nice independent DW! If possible, keep moving and do the BC on the line after the DW. You stopped then did a FC there at :58, which caused the bar to come down. The stop-then-go plus the rotation of the FC makes it hard to get off her line in time, but staying in motion and doing a BC will totally get the info to her sooner.

Good job on the middle section (Teeter to tunnel). For the layering, motion really supports the line so be sure to move more to get the layering: don’t get ahead then decel and don’t go past the dog walk because then you had to decel and pull away, which brought her to you. Instead, go a little deeper to the tunnel and then run out of it on a parallel path to her line, straight past the DW. And yes, keep rewarding 🙂 that was smart training! The ending line will be much easier when the layering is more independent.

Course 2: nice opening!!! Nice rear cross to the frame!

She found this layering line easily. Yay! After the layering, be a little further across the backside jump so you canget a blind, the RC is awkward there 🙂 because you end up in her way as she is jumping. That backside jump position is the same as the one for jump 3 in the opening of course 1: try to push and send from at least the middle of the bar, or even closer to the exit wing, so that you are able to get nicely ahead for the blind.

Speaking of backside positional cues: for the backside circle wrap before the tunnel, run to where the wing meets the bar (at :30 for example) then decel and rotate so she sees the full wing. That way, as she passes you, your feet will face the tunnel (she thought it was a slice each time through there because you were blocking her line and then rotating to the front of the jump a bit, even when she did turn the correct way on landing).

Great layering rewards! Here too!
For the threadle/wrap lap turn at 1:09 before the DW, you can decel there too so you will be more center-of-the-bar to set the turn. Resist temptation to back up, because that looked a bit like the slice and not the wrap. Then stay connected to get her to the DW (although maybe she might have been looking for reward there LOL!)

For the ending line, the concepts are similar to course 1 with the independence: your threadle was good! So then you can leave even sooner (as soon as she turns her head to the jump, then push to the backside (send from center of bar) then get outta there 🙂

3rd video: working the pieces
Nice work building up the layered line with lots of reinforcement! It totally helps her.
When you were tackling the course 1 opening backsides, I think it shows us how the dogs read the positional cues:
For the push to slice, as she is heading to 2, you can already be moving to the center of the bar for 3 or further over, to be showing the backside line before she even lands from 2! Then you can be way ahead for 3-4. And when you pass the exit wing of 3, be sure to keep your arm back and make a massive connection so that your lower body can be sliding away to 4, but your upper body (eyes, shoulders, verbal) will be showing the backside cue.
You were playing with the backside RC – try to keep your arm back on that one and decel to set the line. Then as she gets to your hip, you can step forward to the center of the bar to drive her to the RC. That is also a good way to show the 2-3-4 line!

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I am also glad you had it on video! I totally believed you when you wrote about it or talked about it, but the visual is definitely useful. And that is GREAT because the visual is what knocked some sense into my head that we are not looking at this from the right way (operantly) when she is asking us to help her learn to handle these changes or “surprises”. I know you can train the teeter and the heeling, etc, so this is more about the ‘a-ha!’ moment of finding something that can help her out in a much bigger and more important way. I sent a note to one of my colleagues who is currently specializing in the behavior and neuroscience of resilience and we will put together some fun ideas for you to play with! Resilience conditioning is actually SUPER fun 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Poor girl! I hope she feels better ASAP!
How old is the pup now? I am sure there are ways to break down the ESC stuff and some of the skills. And you can do the walk throughs of the big courses!

[Tracy Sklenar]

September 15th 🙂

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Thanks for sending the teeter video:

>> and she had a total meltdown – would not chase or bring the toy back -acted very suspicious of the whole set up, like I had muddied the picture for her. She initially goes after the HR, but won’t pick it up, bring it to me, catch it when thrown to her or tug on it. Then she flops over and does all her appeasement stuff, so I quit.

It was a very big emotional reaction, indeed, for very small variables that had changed (the toy and you were moving a little bit more- neither are aversive, both are safe and valuable in other contexts). Neither of those two things should, theoretically, produce such a big reaction when we look at this in terms of operant conditioning. However, this being something not uncommon and also happening in other places means it is outside of operant conditioning.

>> I’ll be lucky if she even gets back on there tomorrow.

I would wait a day before putting her back on it, and also this:

>> I have noticed with her that if I take too big a leap and the picture changes too much that she will tell me she’s confused by quitting. I left that in the video so you can see what I’m dealing with. It seems like if normal dogs can modify a piece of training in one step, Dellin needs 3 steps. Just an observation I’ve made with working on heeling.>>

After pondering it a bit overnight, I think this has to do with resilience conditioning more than training technique, looping, etc – the operant side works up until where there is a small change in the environment, then she struggles. So when we can control the change? Ok, no worries, we don’t need to put the toy in the training and can therefore avoid the meltdown (or whatever causes it in the heeling or other behaviors).

However… when we cannot control the variable (because it is in the environment or because we mistakenly changed the reinforcement procedure) or there is an error, she needs the coping skills and resilience conditioning to be able to come back to interaction and engagement without the appeasement behavior. So, I can pull out the resilience conditioning resources if you are interested – dogs with resilience conditioning will not have these kinds of struggles when we train operantly. I am confident that you can thinly slice the behaviors and train them while avoiding the meltdowns – it is when you cannot control something in the environment or if you try something different for reinforcement that might cause big struggles that bleed over into other things – thus the resilience conditioning ideas. Dogs with resilience conditioning will tell us they are confused or worried by offering questions or behavior within the context of what we are doing; dogs in need of resilience conditioning will be unable to continue to engage or offer behavior, which is what seemed to happen here. Let me know what you think!

>> In an effort to get her back to some sort of happy place, I went back to the sequence to work on the turns at 5 with RC or FC. She got back on the HR there and was acting normally again.>>

Yes – motion and HR were all good there! They are within a predictable context, so it was fine. But if a variable changed, we need to build resilience conditioning to make sure that she can remain engaged and not have a big struggle.

Also, be sure to make sure she has no pain, anywhere. Pain somewhere can cause this type of emotional response and she looked a little stiff in her jumping here, carrying her hind end a bit over the jumps (rather than extending) and not as fluid through her spine. I wonder if she is feeling something, somewhere, and that correlates to lack of resilience in other training areas.

>>The RC is hard to see and some of it gets cut off because the turns are super wide. I’m really horrible at those.

Actually, you are not horrible at all! They went pretty well at the beginning and end of the video 🙂 It looks like she read them as left turns correctly, which is the hardest part. On these specific RCs, you need to add deceleration so she can collect for the wrap – you were accelerated all the way through. So as she is landing from 3, you can be at 4 and setting the RC diagonal. Then as she lands from 4 and you are moving up the diagonal, add a big decel and she will add the collection. You can give yourself a bit more room between the jumps so that she has more strides to set up the collection before making a takeoff decision.

Same thing for the FC wraps to the right: add more decel. Because the spacing is tight here, you will probably need to start that decel when she is over 4, so when she lands she can already prepare for the collected turn (or spread things out to 21 feet or so, giving you both more time & space to set up the collection). She read the difference between the turns really well, so it is just a matter of decelerating to get the big collection for the wraps.

Nice work!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Thanks for the teeter info:

>>The teeter – no issues with the end games – bang or the noise. In between Max Puppy sessions, I was going to do the Independent Study teeter class. I did the elevator up to nowhere and she does not like that AT ALL. She would not get on the board again. I had to go back to a flat board in the basement and work my way up to getting any incline – it took a couple of weeks. I went back to using 2 tables – a 24 and a 16 and initially, I let her go back and forth since she was offering going up. Then I got to a 24″ table and like an 8″.>>

This is interesting – How did she do on the Mountain Climbers and teeter table games before it? And was she worried about the very beginning of the elevator game when the board is very low? Usually if the Mountain Climbers, teeter-tables game and Elevator part 1 are all strong, then the bigger elevator games should not be a shock to the system for the dogs. (Unless you meant she was worried about the Mountain Climbers and not the elevator game?)

>> As you can see, she thinks quite a lot about it. I use food at the end.

Yeah, she is doing it but not really having the time of her life doing it 🙂

>>Toys were too much – she could not stop.

Toys as the target, meaning she would not do a 2o2o? What if you used a toy between cookies, to keep things more interesting for her? I am not fully convinced the food is a great positive reinforcement here so a little excitement will help with that.

>>To keep a clean loop, I either circle her back and run or send her around a cone and run back.

To keep to super clean and SUPER fun (because the fun means less over-thinking and more excitement/value in the game), try to loop it in such a way that you never need to tell her she is wrong if she tries to begin the game – that happened twice here, which is a pretty high failure rate on such a short session. I mean, she doesn’t really love to do it in the first place so we definitely don’t want to dampen it further by telling her she is wrong when she actually might want to do it LOL! So avoid the issue of the broken stay entirely by changing the loop – if she might break the stay while you put the cookies down or lead out, have her either way on a mat or have her hanging off a tug or chasing her hollee roller toy while you do that – then when the food is in, you can get her on the table and directly into the game, no telling her she is wrong so there are no icky feeling associated with the teeter whatsoever.

When using food as the reward for dogs that don’t love food, I always build toy play into the loop – it brings more value to the session overall and it builds the value of the food as well. There are plenty of ways to do it. For example, you can throw a hollee roller for her to chase, place the food on the target, call her back to the table, reward for bringing the HR back, on the table, into the game, eat the food, throw the hollee roller.

The other reason to use a toy and let her move away from the table/teeter between reps is that it completes the stress cycle. She finds this stressful but keeping her AT the teeter, even if it is only for 4 reps, does not allow her to complete the stress cycle immediately so the icky feelings remain. The neuroscience tells us to let the dogs complete that stress cycle with a quick runabout with the toy or tugging or at the very least…. moving away from the teeter (negative reinforcement supports this as well). Plus, the toy mixed in with food puts her in a more optimal arousal state (Yerkes-Dodson) for the difficulty of this task – which is good because she will think about it a little less (but understand the stopping better than when it was just a to and no food).

On the video – the big lines here are looking good! It is good to know she is processing the verbals for the tunnel exits!! What a difference between the first rep (no verbal) and the left verbal on the 2nd rep! Nice!!!!

The reps where you are on the takeoff side of 3 set the line 4-5 a little better here based on how 4-5 are set up. To get a better turn on the 4 jump when you did the blind on the landing side, you can stay closer to the 3 jump and don’t run as much to the 4 jump – your running line will basically be close to 3 then directly to 5. That way when she lands from 3, you are already turned and heading to 5, so she will set up a good turn. When you ran towards 4, she thought you wanted a straight line after 4, which is why you got the wider turns and the dropped bar on the 2nd to last rep.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

These are good skills to work on with the girls! They did well!

Seq 1 with Mali:
She was providing excellent feedback about the cues here! All of her behavior is rewardable here because she was mirroring the cues and timing.

I think what was happening was that the RC cue was not distinct enough from the other cues, so she was questioning which one you wanted. When your shoulders & arm pulled to the center of the bar and you moved forward towards the opposite wing for just the right amount of time, she would get it (like at :15, :50). But if you were too early she would flip away (:05 and :24) or too late, she thought you wanted the backside (:35 and :44). And then when you wanted the shoulder turn to the tunnel at 1:02, she was not sure because that same shoulder turn looked like the RC cues.

So we can smooth it out with a slight tweak to the RC cues here: decelerate at jump 3 til she is approaching it, and turn your shoulders to the center of the RC jump (4) – as she is jumping 3, accelerate to the center of the bar without any big arm cues (just motion). That center-of-the-bar motion is only used for RCs, so that should answer her questions. And then as she is driving to the bar, just before takeoff, you cut in behind her (and you will be ahead again when she lands).

And that will also be distinctly different from the post turn to the tunnel because you will be further from 3 and turning away, so it looks really different. from the RC cues.

And no worries about the extra jump before the tunnel after the FC – it was on her line so she was correct. The FC looked great!!!

Seq 2 with Lit’L Bit – she was doing it all very nicely but I think her thought bubble said “HUMANS ARE NUTS WHY AM I GOING SO FAR AWAY AFTER A REAR CROSS” hahahaha! So, you cna help her be more convinced by adding in more rewards for the big go line after the RC. She was reading it all beautifully but was a little slower because there was a TON of distance. The high outside arm to keep her on the line to the jump before the tunnel really helped!
After the tunnel, I find that the added connection really helps like what you did at :56 and 1;14. She is convinced the layer jump was a serp if you didn’t do the big connection. When you are running past the jump, you can try a ‘closed’ shoulder and a big disconnection to help her run past it – you can work that layering skill in isolation with a placed reward so she sees the difference between the layer cues and the serp cues.

Seq 3 w/ Mali – she did well reading the rear crosses here too! On the tight wrap rear, you needed more transition from acceleration to decel at :26 and :38 – you were accelerated so she stayed on her line. When you added a decel at :42 – nailed it!
The transition element from fast to slow is important to show her:
if you are moving the same speed, even if it is a decelerated speed the whole time, she doesn’t see it as a wrap cue so give her more acceleration before it then decelerate as you start the RC cues. This is also true for the RC in the opening when you send her away down the big line to the tunnel – a little more acceleration will help convince her and also throwing rewards will help her trust that she was correct to go that far from you 🙂

>> (I purposely left in the beginning clip where Mali is jumping on me – any ideas to help stop this behavior would be appreciated. She has improved – at least we have the beginning of a start line stay)>>

She is a feisty lady! It looks like she is stimulated/excited and doesn’t quite know what to do with herself in that moment, other than jump up and be grabby. So, you can give her other behaviors to do. I like to have the dogs put their front feet on my leg as I am getting ready, so they can just stand there and breathe (they do get cookies for it). Or if that is too hard, you can give her a bed or mat to wait on, then call her too you at the start line, then line up. Or, if she will tug on the toy – let her tug while you are getting ready – then she can ‘out’ the toy, line up, and go (or get the tug again as a reward). I do a lot of tug – sit-tug-sit games like this one, to help the feisty dogs be able to find a good outlet for their mouth but also be able to sit when asked and when in high arousal:

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! This was a really interesting session to watch!

>> I thought this would be pretty straightforward but it wasn’t!

Backside circle wraps are the hardest commitment in agility, so it is trickier than it looks 🙂 They rely on full countermotion and are very hard!

>>He was a bit better at committing to the wing when I did the second side.

I watched it a few times to see what was causing him to ask questions on the first side versus the 2nd side, and a couple of things were happening:

– one thing was that you were blocking the wing a bit (especially on the first side), so he had to go wider around your path to find it, which made it harder for you to move forward properly. You can see a bit of the wing blocking at 1:06 – 1:08. Ideally you would be over by the jump cups so he can see the whole wing. I think he could only see the outer edge of the wing here.

– also, he has a countermotion question: I think he was having trouble with the correct footwork (yours, not his haha) with the line of motion on the first side, and you changed it to compensate on the 2nd side (probably without realizing). Looking at the first side, where he is turning left: you were correct to be moving forward right behind him and no sideways or backwards steps as he was passing you. For example, :09 was correct footwork of moving forward but the pressure of it pushed him to the tunnel, and the footwork was also correct at :15 and :20 (he got it when you were correct moving more slowly at :20).
Compare that to the other side, after 1:32 for example – you were sending him past you then stepping backwards then forwards… that backwards step was what he was cuing off of to come around the wing. But that backwards step will put you in the way of the landing spot when we add a bar in and it will also delay you from getting up the line.

So we want you to be able to do what you wanted to do on the first couple of reps which was to move in right behind him and work the countermotion element. To do this:
– let him see the full wing
– move more slowly through the countermotion, partially so he can sort the commitment out and partially so you don’t step backwards or sideways trying to go fast 🙂
– throw a reward to the ‘landing’ side of the wing behind you to help increase the value of the countermotion

And you can also try to start with right turns instead of left turns – I *think* he is a righty? Most of the turns at the beginning were left turns, so you might be able to get the countermotion while you move forward more solidified on his easier side, then transfer to his harder side.

Let me know if this all makes sense 🙂 Nice work here!! I am sure we can convince him to do the countermotion here 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Lots of good work here, he is doing really well finding these lines and responding to the cues!

Nice job getting him to do the jump and and not the tunnel on the first warm up rep 🙂

Question – what does your lalalalala cue mean? I hear it on the 3-4-5 and the 14-15 lines. I think maybe it is a general jump cue? You might not need it the whole way through on those lines (more time to breath) and you can also accelerate more on those lines to both show the extension needed and get to the next parts sooner (more below).

First run, working the pieces:
On the 3-4-5 line, you can connect but run harder through there, with your shoulder a little less open and arm less back (it almost looked like a threadle arm). This is a good spot to just pump your arms and run, with your eyes on his eyes 🙂 That way you an get him on the line and show transitions in to the 6-7-8 turn and also be able to layer the 3-4-5 section to get to 6-7 even sooner!

Nice job getting him to turn out of the 10 tunnel and to 11 at :36 – you can ‘release’ the opposite arm and turn to the 12 tunnel a little sooner (bar down there) – basically as soon as you see him do the lead change to turn towards 11, you can bring the outside arm down and turn to 12.

Really good adjustment on the connection and line for the tunnel send to 13 at :40 (not strong enough, he went past it) versus :44 (very clear so he got it). Super!!!

The only real trouble spot on this course was the turn at 16 – I think you are doing the verbal but not showing the physical cue to support it, which is why he had questions. At :47, you had too much decel already on the 14-15 jumps (dropped 15 because the physical cue said turn but then you kept moving forward) then the dig dig verbal + turn was a full post turn at :50. At ;57 you moved more through that section – if it watch it without the sound, it totally looked like a slice so he was correct again 🙂 I think your dig dig is the wrap to the left, which he got more of at 1:05 but then your shoulders were open to the line he took, good boy.

So to get him wrapping to his left, drive hard 13-14-15 so you are closer to the wing of 16 before he takes off for 15. As he is taking off, do a big decel towards the 16 wing (which is when you can also add your dig dig verbal) and then rotate your feet to 17 – so as he is passing you to 16, your feet are already rotated and you can be moving towards 17. This transition (decel then rotation) should totally get the wrap on 16 to the backside of 17.

Full run – nice opening here! You ran with less arm back, more like a sprinter here- but also with good connection on the 3-4-5 line and he was really strong with finding the jumps and not the off course tunnel 🙂
Nice job getting the turn to 11 and then turning to 12 as well at 1:27 -1:29. Lovely!!! You got the right timing of seeing him turn to 11 and then sending to 12.

He still had some confusion at 16, but that is the transition – I think when that is sorted, you can have him do the slice backside at 17 (entering closer to 8 and exiting nearer to the weaves) because that will be an easier line. And he did well finding the weaves here! Yay!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

The lap turns are looking really strong!
Dog on left – this went well at the beginning! You had good patience and letting her get to your hand before starting to move back and moving your leg. You can extend the magic cookie hand more towards her before the release, so she has a clear focal point

And yes, be sooner when adding the tunnel, you should be in position and stationary with your arm extended before she exits – she smoked you on the first one then you got better and better, and earlier and earlier 🙂

Dog on right – yes, I agree that at the beginning yo were looking at her too much on the first rep but also you can add in the hand more extended towards her for a clearer “come to the hand” indication.

Also, you can delay your step back longer and also step straight back – when you moved your hand THEN stepped back, she was great (2:05 for example) if you moved the leg too soon, you ended up stepping sideways and she took the wrong side of the wing like at 1:39.
So letting her get almost all the way to the hand while you look at the hand… then do the hand moving back and foot moving back worked like a charm!
You had a lot of good reps at the end, including when you added the tunnel in on both side – nice!

Tandems:

I think there were a couple of things happening here that made things harder for her to read.

When she was taking the outside of the wing and not doing the tandem, your line of motion w/ feet & hips were heading to the wing – even just a little – so she was correct like at :30 and 1:42. Ideally, you feet would be facing straight forward on the line and not facing the wing at all, and several feet from the wing – this is more like what you did at 1:58. And keep moving – she was getting it when you stood still but we want her to also get it when you are moving.

Add in late verbals, so she was exiting the tunnel and did not know til after exiting that she needed to look for you – ideally, you would be calling her or using a directional before she went into the tunnel, rather than when she was in or exiting.

So call her starting when they are 6 feet from the tunnel, turn your feet totally straight past the wing, (don’t over-rotate back to her) and move forward slowly so she can see the upper body cues.

When working from a stay, you can show the hand cues before the release like at 1:28, but that is a small detail because you won’t often be seeing these from a standstill LOL!

>>Should I set the tunnels to point more to the inside of the wing to make it easier?

I don’t think so, I think calling her sooner will really help so she exits already turned.

>>Lap turn – do you ust one for this one? I’ve done lap turns that would be proper wing wraps and also that would be a left/right type of turn so would it just be the word that you would use for the shape of the turn that matches best?>>

Lap turns are always threadle/wraps, so I use my threadle wrap verbal. If something else is needed that I cannot physically cue, I might add another directional to it as well, but that is only for insanely complex sequences.

>>Tandem Turn – Similar question – do you use a verbal for this one?>>

Tandems are used in a wider variety of situations so it depends on the situation -it might be for a RC, so I use a directional for the jump. Or they might be used for threadle wraps, or for a ‘switch’ on the flat, so the verbal would depend on the specific cnotext.

>>There you mentioned using a high single off arm for the threadle slice held in position, and two arms for the threadle 360 wrap one high one low also held in position.>>

Yes, or dog-side arm pulled back for the threadle slice.

>>For the tandem turn I have used a low off arm and then as they pass me do a flip of that hand – does that still make sense with the hand use on the threadles? I think it does but wanted to check.>>

yes, it makes sense, because tandems have much in common with threadle wraps 🙂

Nice work here!
Tracy

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