Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
I saw the files come through, so I will get them downloaded asap!
>The terriers certainly don’t go by the “no killing things” rule here- rodents are FAIR GAME! >
I’ve been lucky that my terriers over the years have all been easily convinced not to murder things LOL!
> But there is a “no leaving work for critters” rule- crittering is either done during off hours or when cued!>
This is a good rule!
>The mental things are certainly what get to me with Roots.>
The mental game is hard, especially the intrusive thoughts! I totally relate.
> Maybe one of the things I lost/changed when I stopped taking in person classes?>
Possibly! Or the quick bounce back from errors – there is no time in a group class or a seminar to spiral, because the instructor gives quick feedback and then off we go again. You can treat yourself like a student!
>So maybe I’ll try to emulate that aspect of in person group classes. I’ll even plan it into the session, have a comfy chair ready (instead of the ground) and a cold beverage and maybe a snack. Yay inspiration!>
OMG I am stealing this idea 🙂 Brilliant!
>As far as how often I run full courses? Not very often. I trial about two weekends a month (July was pretty heavy at 3, plus being away camping for July 4 weekend, so no agility then). During the week I do small skills usually before work (rotating dogs throughout the week), Friday afternoons I mow the agility yard and build a course if we aren’t going to trial that weekend, then run it one of the days of the weekend, and take the other day to do something not agility related (but will squeak in some agility if I can). I’d worry about running full courses before work with wet, dewy grass, but could try to do course work on some afternoons? I got away from doing full course work very often because it felt like we were lacking so many smaller skills >>
I think doing full course work more often might help trialing. There is more emphasis on getting all the way through without stopping, making good plans (or learning from bad plans haha) and simply rehearsing challenges in big flow so the brain/body is prepared for trials. Yes, mixing in smaller skills is all good – but I think agility is one of the sports where having *all* or most of the skills is impossible. So we keep training, yes – but we apply our existing toolbox to the full courses and see how it goes. Do you think it would be possible, maybe twice a month, to set a full course and run it? And re-number to run other full courses on it without having to do much course building. That might be doable (twice a month) with a busy work-life-trial balance.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
She was really great about coming up the ramp the first time, even though it was a little weird feeling… And she was super confident the 2nd time up the ramp. Yay! It made me laugh that she was so happy to drive up the board that she started without you even when you were trying to switch to a different game. So that added a tiny bit of movement but she seemed perfectly happy with it. You asked her if it was scary and she said, “nope, not scary” LOL!
Since she was on board with running up the board, you were able to add even more movement! Yay! You can leave the reward at the top of the board so she doesn’t wait for you to get there – I use a dab of cream cheese so it is high value but also doesn’t fall off when the board moves.
> I don’t have one so this work is very sporadic.>
It seemed like she was super confident after the first rep, and that is great! So you can use the first rep of each session as an easy reminder rep… then carry on with the training. Because she is confident, training it sporadically will not be a problem.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>Here is video from the second session using just one bar and varying start points. He cleared them all.>
Excellent!!! He looked perfectly comfortable here.
> I tried replacing one jump in a short sequence with a wingless and ran it in both directions. Ven missed the jump completely on the first time through but that was my fault for not supporting it. >
That makes sense that he would come off it is the info was not clear about taking it.
>He didn’t knock it a single time so at this point, I’m just going to continue mixing in wingless, especially at home where space is so tight.>
Super!! Yes, keep adding it in so he gets used to seeing them on course.
> discovered Ven wouldn’t go out to jumps so this session I worked getting him to “go jump” from the tunnel exit.>
To add a complication, this sequence had a rear cross on the tunnel entry so body language said turn even if voice said “go”. You can set this up so you are not rear crossing the tunnel and that will support the go even more.
Good job breaking it down from the tunnel exit!
Getting to a position with you on the other side of the DW was hard, so you can split that more: after starting next to him, step away just a little bit at a time, then eventually step back behind him – that will include you standing on the bottom of the dog walk 🙂 before heading to the other side of it.To really pump up the value of staying on the line to the jump, you can throw the reward sooner so it lands on the landing side of the jump like you did at :23. As the session went on, the rewards got closer and closer to you which builds value for being near you. The lotus ball is perfect for this because it is easy to throw and very visible.
>We have class Monday evening so I’m curious to see if this session translates into him being able to take a jump in class.>
Great!!! In class, hand off the lotus ball to someone else with the instructions to throw it as soon as he takes his first step towards the jump. That will help build the skill!
Pop out 1: This went well! A couple of ideas to make it even smoother:
You can look at him more directly as he exits the tunnel so he goes more directly to the backside of 3 (he had a zig zag there because he didn’t see a lot of connection when he exited the tunnel)
Serping him in on the backside of 3 by opening up your shoulder (or using the opposite arm) worked nicely! You don’t need to turn your feet, I think using the arms will be all he needs.Wrapping to the right on 4 at :53 went well – he will collect better if you decel more and let your arm cues do most of the work to get collection before takeoff.
You had more motion at 1:17 which did cue the slice. The last rep there had clear decel into the wrap and he was lovely!Pop out 2 – I think this might have been pop out 4, based on the threadle at 3 and backside of 4. It is definitely a hard one!
Connect on the exit of 1 to get a nice line to the 2 tunnel. Say the verbal directly to him so he sees the connection. From the camera angle, you can see how he is coming around the wing of 1 and only sees your back. Having your arm pointing back to his nose will open up the connection he sees and smooth out the line to the #2 tunnel.
On the threadle at 3 – you can start calling him before he enters the tunnel, so he exits expecting the turn cues. That will allow you to keep your feet facing the slice line (towards the a-frame in this case). Too much rotation of your feet either got the wrap to the left, or he thought it was a front cross and came in too far from 3.
Sending to the 4 backside went the best when you looked at him when you said the verbal and step to the backside, rather than point forward. Pointing forward turns your shoulders and feet (watch your right foot in particular) to the front of the bar – that physical cue overrode the verbal, so he took the front when you pointed ahead of him.
You had more motion and much nicer connection into the send at :41 on the 2nd video! Yay! Your arm did not point til he was past you and heading to the backside, and that worked great!
Compare to 2:12 where you pointed ahead of him (less connection as you started the cue) which turned shoulders & feet to the front, so he went to the front side.
Being a little further from the line on the landing of 4 helped him see the front side of 5 (1:39 on the first video, :43 on the 2nd video). Being really close pushed him to the other side of 5 on the first video – nice adjustment to change your position to give him more room on the line! Remember to give him his turn cues for 5 as he is over 4 – at :44, the turn cues came as he was taking off for 5 so the bar came down there.
And you can be sooner with the cues on 6 (start them before he enters the #6 tunnel, so he exits turned) and 7 for the wrap. You were giving him his turn cue on 7 in the second video and he did really well there!
Pop out 3:
> discovered Ven could not release from approx 15′ leadout.>It might have been the distance, or it could be that he was not sure of what the line was: your position was saying it was the closer end of the tunnel but the threadle arm was saying it was not (and the threadle side of the tunnel was less visible)… so he might have been waiting for clearer info to avoid being wrong. Rewarding immediately for the release helped, probably pumping up confidence that the cue meant coming to you. He might also be frozen there because he doesn’t want to be wrong, so not stopping if something goes wrong will help. You could see him heading to the tunnel entry in front of him at 1:50 when your motion was showing it and the threadle arm/verbal were late (then a white fuzz was there so he probably thought it was a treat LOL!!) so always keep going, no fixes in the moment or stopping even if you drop a treat for him – continuing and rewarding at the end will be the most motivating way to keep him driving off the start line even on the harder leadouts.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Thanks for the updates! I am glad the boys did well with the sequences!!!
>Alonso didn’t go in the weaves right away but when I re-sent him he weaved but at a slower pace.>
Right, that makes sense – he was probably like WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THE JUDGE hahahahaha but I am glad he recovered and was back to normal on the next runs 🙂
Keep me posted on how the course goes!!
Tracy
Good morning –
>First, I hope you are doing okay-looks like it’s been a really tough week. Hang in there.>
Thanks, It is so hard, even when you knew it was coming (bad diagnosis received in May).
<
>
I have not used stride regulators before and admit I’m not really how to use them in this case. I’ll also acknowledge that this running contact training isn’t going quite as smoothly as the past two times I’ve trained it with my other dogs so I probably need to learn some new tricks. Do you have any recommended resources for how to implement them in training? I’m a little worried Reacher will think they are super weird and slow down even more, but it’s probably my lack of experience with them that makes me think that.>You’ve had two dogs where running contact training went smoothly? That is impressive. Usually it goes backwards, sideways, and all sorts of off the rails before being finished LOL!!
I was looking for videos where I had the stride regulators in place but I can’t find them. They are just to encourage the small dogs to leap the top of the down ramp a bit.
You can see the results of it here, especially in the close up moments (but I have no idea how I labelled the training videos so can’t find them):
Both dogs leap the apex of the down ramp. It is fast and fun and adds a lot of speed.
I used the little white attachment thing from CleanRun but I am sure you can also use a piece of pool noodle sliced in half so it has a low profile. I taught them how to leap over it on the flat, then lower on the down ramp, then higher on the down ramp, then back chained it.
I put the regulator over the first slat at the top of the down ramp, which is exactly where Elektra is leaping correctly here. Yay! Hot Sauce was giving a little EXTRA (as she likes to do LOL) so she really had to shift her weight to get into the contact zone. I think Reacher will have a less deranged approached to it, more like Elektra.Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
><
I thought I was rewarding on her line for the wrap. So I shouldn’t throw it at the completion of the wrap to encourage a tight turn? Instead I should throw it before she’s really finished the wrap?>>
You were rewarding the exit line – for now, it is more ideal to reward her for jumping the jump as you move the other way, which means reward on the landing side before she has finished the wrap. We are rewarding commitment because the exit part is the easy part 🙂 You won’t need to encourage a tight turn – when you don’t reward the commitment, she will automatically turn to chase the next line due to your motion.
Looking at the jumping course:
There were plenty of absolutely beautiful sections here!!!
>, but we did run into some issues as I was trying to clean things up>
Only one issue causing the same question in different spots… pointing ahead of her.
On the gorgeous sections, you were sending her and committing her with tons of connection and NO pointing ahead. Sure, there were spots where your dog-side arm traveled with her as she was driving away from you, but that is different from when you point ahead of her to cue a commitment.
Pointing ahead of her changes the line of your shoulders & feet and blocks connection, which changes the cue. So she has a BIG MAD when things are not clear (bark bark bark). You might notice her happy silence when you are not pointing and things are clear 🙂
#10 (realized I needed an “out” verbal instead of a backside),> This was also a pointy situation 🙂 At :29 and 1:05 and 1:58, you were pointing forward to 10, which changed the line and she was not sure of which side of the jump to take. So she gave you some verbal feedback 🙂
The ‘out’ was very effective because… no pointing 🙂 Your dog-side arm was back and she could see the connection and line of shoulders to 10. Outside arm helped for sure, but the lack of being pointy was the critical piece.The Backside cues for 14 were really strong on most reps – lots of connection, no pointing til she was passing you (one moment at 3:10 where you pulled up too early, but the rest were strong!)
And she was great on taking the jump at 14 then sending to the 15 tunnel when you connected and didn’t point til she was moving past you (your arm was supporting her there more than cueing her). You had a big pointing moment to 15 at 2:10 so she came off the line you wanted (shoulders and feet changed the info because of the pointing ahead of her) and on the resend pulled her off of it too. Compare to 3:46 where you sent without pointing and she nailed it. Lovely!
A couple of pointing moments on the ending line mixed in: you were pointing to 17 at 2:20 (then she was so mad because you were still pointing LOL – not her fault!) You didn’t point at all at 2:34 to get 17 and she went to it beautifully.
You were pointing ahead to 18 at 1:29, and that almost pulled her off the line (motion supported it so she got back on it). When you didn’t point on the other reps – very smooth commitment!
You needed to be a little closer and less pointy 🙂 and more connected to cue 20 at 1:33
You got great commitment to 20 at 2:39 (you needed to run to 21 and not pull away so much).Then 3:43 to the end was a point-free zone and it was gorgeous!
So, since everything else is going so well – in your course analysis/planning and walk throughs, identify any sending moments and challenge yourself to run without arms – just connect, deliver your verbals to her, and drive lines. That is when she is happiest and picks up amazing flow on course! And if she does back and come off a line, that is her yelling “POINTY! POINTY!!!!” (Nox always yells her feedback) so on the resend and as you continue, be sure to not point ahead of her.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>This feels like I’m really missing something important. She is 100% responsive on course, so I know it’s me, but I’m struggling to fix it.>
It is all part of the normal learning curve with a young, fast dog. Nothing bad happening – just sorting out what the info needs to look/sound like, and when to get it to her. It can be frustrating! But it is part of building this huge vocabulary of physical and verbal cues we need in agility.
>Not really clear on this. Further across the bar which way? Big hand cues how? I am not at all clear on the difference between this drill and a ‘rear cross from a distance’, which is how I explanned it to myself.>
The main difference is that we don’t put a lot of pressure on the RC line by running forward to the RC jump on the diagonal – we might face that line a bit in the early training stages, but for the most part we are facing a same/similar line as if we would want a post turn on the jump, plus we are not cutting behind the dog’s path like a normal RC. The foot rotation happens after the dog turns away, just to get the handler moving to the next location.
Here are some drawings & screenshots:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PU0Ng_3LBxtlIWa8Vq4UXkK79H9MGlb44sPypPQNGsw/edit?usp=sharingAnd as the dog is approaching the previous jump, we begin a series of cues to differentiate the switch away from the post turn: I engage both hands (visible to the dog) along with decelerating (and verbal). Early in the learning process, I raise my hands to be like “HEY LOOK AT THIS, DOG!” The hands can then drop down and do a swoosh movement to help turn the dog away too. This is stuff we have taught them on the flat and on wings etc, but always good to revisit their understanding. Contraband (5 years old now) knows this cue pretty well so the cues are more subtle, I am not really raising them up anymore or giving a giant swoosh to turn him away. So I found an old video of Elektra learning it as a baby dog, where you can see the decel then the big ‘grab and swoosh’ arms on the tunnel exit:
>Easier to get what from a bigger distance? Do I need to be further away?
Yes – decelerating and moving a bit to the post turn side of the wing, then flipping her away will add the distance.
Looking at errors – there are things we do in handling that universally create the common errors 🙂
>Our biggest issue right now is having her turn the ‘wrong’ way on course and me having to wait and adjust for the line.>
That is usually late info, in terms of turning her away. Her handling info needs to begin no later than liftoff of the previous jump, on a jumping sequence. Or just before she enters the tunnel (and no later than the exit) if there is a tunnel before the turn jump. If she generally turns towards you as the ‘wrong’ way, it means the RC info was late – on a true RC will you will be changing sides, you can often set that line beginning as early as the landing of the previous jump, depending on the context and if it is a straightforward line. That will allow her to see the RC diagonal a lot sooner.
If she is turning towards you on a threadle wrap (or slicing rather than wrapping) – most of the time, the deceleration is missing so motion cues the slice. The deceleration cues the wrap and also allows you to turn your feet to the wrap line – both are really important for that particular handling move.
If she turns away from you when you are trying to do a FC wrap: that is generally when decel and rotation happen at the same time (a little late) – that causes the feet and pressure on the line to show RC. That includes ‘throw back’ moves – slamming on the brakes with decel and rotation at the same time cue a RC.
> I’ve also been burned by deceling and cueing early only to have her pull off the obstacle entirely.>
That happens mostly when the decel and rotation happen at the same time… but too early. It is like hitting the brakes and turning the wheel on a sports car – you’ll get an immediate turn. Doing that can also break connection which will pull a young dog off a jump. So ideally, the decel begins at the correct time (no later than liftoff of the previous jump, for example) but you keep moving forward in decel or hold your position with connection if it is a send. Then the rotation or movement away does not happen until you see her getting close to the correct jump and even starting to collect.
> When I asked “why are you coming in” it’s because I can’t feel the difference in handling from when she gets it or when she doesn’t. I’m not sure I would have seen a difference on the video either. It all looks relatively the same to me.>
That is why I invoke a 2 failure rule – to stop and look at the video, to see what is happening. If I can’t see it on a small screen, like a phone – I put it on a bigger screen (computer or ipad) and scroll through it in slow motion, to watch my shoulders and feet. Where are they pointing? And shoulders changing line will also change connection. I like to freeze it in the moment the dog makes the line decision, like when she is choosing the front of the jump versus coming into the backside. Sometimes, with small fast dogs, slow motion is the only way to see the subtle things that she responds to immediately.
> More distance does make it easier, but up closer, what do I do? Like in the trial videos, closer handling seems to be problematic for me.>
I think that when the dog is further from us, our connection is easier and clearer (for both dog and handler) because we can see everything more easily. Up close is harder because maintaining connection is harder, which also messes up timing. In close handling, you can ramp up your connection, looking downwards and very directly at her. The better you see her clearly, the better your timing will be automatically!
And let her ‘cue’ you to begin each cue then move to the next one. So for a threadle wrap, for example: when she is approaching takeoff of the previous jump, your connection is ramped up as you decelerate and turn to face the TW line (parallel to her desired path). You can also exaggerate the hand cues to ‘catch’ her attention (along with the verbal) and you keep looking very directly at her, until you see her turn away and begin the wrap behavior – that is her cue to you that you can move to the next line. But nothing changes until you see her give you that cue.Let me know if that makes more sense!
Tracy
Hi!
She gave really good feedback about what the useful info was on the turning away here! Think of these turn away moves as not so much a rear cross, but more like decelerated tandem turns, where you are using a lot of upper body cues (hands) to flip her away – and decel both sets a tighter turn and makes the uppder body cues more obvious. The lower body (feet, line of motion) are actually not as important on these. What was happening was you were wanting to emphasize your feet and move fast, but that only helped when you drove the RC line and added RC pressure – which makes it harder to get at a distance.> (which I got to use at the trial this weekend!). >
Ah! That is cool!
>Jumps at 16″>
She had no trouble clearing them, but the taller bars also gave you less leeway to have late timing (more on that below)
One thing to remember: if you are getting the same response for her several times… watch the video to see what is happening rather than re-start or withhold reward. We don’t want her to learn the sequence in order to get it 🙂 , we definitely like the feedback/responses to what the handler shows. Dogs in general (and Muso in particular) are very good about doing what they see, so in the spots where she was ‘wrong’… she was actually responding correctly to motion cues which were overriding the verbals (and if they don’t match, she has to choose whichever one is more compelling). Watching the video after the 2nd error will get things on the right track very quickly!
Looking at video 1:
On he first few reps where she was turning right (:13, :41 for example) you can see the foot emphasis. And moving fast got a wider turn She did get the correct turn at 2:00 and 2:22 when you drove the RC line, but you can add being further across the bar and using big hand cues and less RC line cues. That will get the tight turn and also make it very easy to layer. A little bit of RC pressure will help her learn what the cues are all about, then you will be able to do it from anywhere!On the 2nd video:
Looking at the timing: ideally, as she is approaching takeoff for jump 2 (first jump after wing wrap), you would be decelerating and beginning the arm cues to turn her away. You had the deceleration/cues happening later here – as she was approaching jump 2, you were accelerating forward to get clsoer to 3, then as she was approaching 3 you were trying to turn her away.
So that created 2 things happening:
When you pulled your shoulder to your right (:05, :18, :31, :42, :53) that looked like a threadle wrap cue, based on position, the decel happening there, and shoulder turn. She was pretty adamant about it LOL! At :53 you even asked her “why are you pulling in” and I think I heard her say “because that is what you are cueing me to do” LOL! Any time I find myself asking my dog “why are you doing that?” a voice in my head reminds me to go watch the video 🙂At :12 & 1:28 – you did *not* do the shoulder pull so she knew it was the front side of the jump – but the acceleration she saw as she was approaching/landing from the previous jump created a wider turn on 3.
She had similar feedback on the cues at 2:02 and 2:12 – she turned back to you not away. You got it at 2:25 and 2:37 as a RC line – that works but it will be easier to get it from a bigger distance so you can layer more.
Let me know if that makes sense about doing it more as a tandem turn with decel and a lot of upper body cues, and less as a real rear cross.
Nice work here!
TracyDo you want me to post my thoughts, or wait for your analysis so we can compare? I have watched them – nice runs!!!!!
Hi!
Very nice back chaining through the ‘baby’ level here!!! And I am impressived with your smooth frisbee throws behind you!!!
She did really well when she could see the hand cues. At :36 your threadle arm was a bit hidden in front of you. What I mean by that is your dog-side shoulders was forward and your arm was in front of you, but she couldn’t see it. At :37 you can see her lookign at you for more info
Compare to :23 and especially at :53 & 1:05 where your dog-side shoulder was a bit further back so she could see the threadle arm and did a great job with the wing!
You can also use both arms – let her see both of your hands going back towards her nose then showing the threadle wrap cues because that can make it really obvious especially as you add more speed.
>But once I added the tunnel and some speed, it fell apart. She did one with the tunnel but we could not replicate it>
Yes, adding more speed definitely makes it harder! And motion plus speed might lock her onto the front side of the jump. So as she comes flying out of the tunnel, you can decelerate (that is an important part of the cue, and sets up a nice collection too) and show her both arms. That will bring her in to you, which will then let you hel her flip away 🙂
If you look at the successful run you had here after the tunnel (1:21) you can see that you decelerated and she could see your hands, so she was successful. When she took the front side of the jump at 1:34, you were moving pretty fast and she couldn’t really see your hands. So the deceleration plus more visible hand cues should get her to come in for the threadle.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>She must have let that latent learning kick in. Only one time she missed the jump and I ran ahead.>
Latent learning is great! Yay!
>The go 4 ways also went well until I twisted my ankle. Let’s just say I had it set up, but showed up in flip flops. Said I better just go work contacts..
Got distracted to the point that I forgot I had flip flops on and ran the set up. Twisted the foot on the rear cross and well… that’s all she wrote. This aging hormone brain is not good for agility lol>Ouch!!! How is your ankle today?? Hope it is good! And yes, flip flops are challenging for us with the aging hormone brains LOL!
T
Hi!
> I took your advice and got him a bit more ramped up at the beginning, and surprise!!, he took the off course jump instead of the a-frame. Ha!! I still gave him a reward for that of course.>
Ramping him up was ogod, he was on fire! Yay! And he let you know that the line 2-3 needs turn cues 🙂 You had parallel path motion so he stayed on his line, good boy! On the other reps, you gave clear cues and he got it easily.
He got the threadle wrap n 4 really well – it has a lot of decel cues to get it, so it would be fun to compare to a blind cross either before or after the a-frame, then pushing to the wrap on 4.
>Then had another surprise with a balk at the teeter, which had me thinking maybe he’s sore again, but I think it’s just been a long time since I had our teeter out and despite calibrating with weight I think it does tip heavier than others.>
It could also have been that the angle of appraoch from 5 to the teeter was hard so you can straighten it out a bit next time for the first run?
Weaves looked good! Yay!
He was looking at you on the RDW – he might need a focal point to drive to, that is not the TnT 🙂 It can be a jump wing or something that he can lock onto so he accelerates down the ramp and off it (while still maintaining criteria, of course :))
Starting from the send to 11 didn’t have a ton of momentum but he picked up speed after it – he liked the double tunnels!
At jump 14 at 2:34 – you had lots of countermotion which is good – to help get commitment as you run away to the next line as he is passing you, be sure to maintain connection behind you to the landing spot.
The 2nd run only had the first half but it looked really good!
>I threw in a little running dog walk video practice from TODAY just for funzies. He didn’t fail one time. I think the dog walk speed will come eventually. It’s distracting too because Rich had his CNC machine cutting parts again so it’s a bit louder out there. But it actually sounds a lot louder on video that I think it does in person!>
I think the noisiest part might have been the center ramp of the DW moving? Either that or the CNC noise was coincidentally happening as he was hitting the top ramp? You can brace the center of the DW so it doesn’t make hat noise (which means there is motion/whip on the plank). Have you ever used stride regulators? He is being careful to get criteria, but you can use stride regulators to get him extending even more and then still getting criteria.
>Then a little surprise for you at the end…I just tried to do the super hard weave entry from the tunnel under the dog walk just for kicks one time.>
He was so close! Good boy!!!!!
> I’m honestly surprised Reacher didn’t stop and bark at him.>
Ha! I am pretty sure Reacher knew who his audience was LOL! He did well trying to find the weaves.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
OMG you and Roux are on right on the cusp of some really big wins/Qs/titles!! I know it is frustrating but keep working it – the skills are coming together brilliantly, and I know very very soon things will click into place then the Qs/wins/titles will start to pile up 🙂
Run 1 (premier):
Fantastic lead out! This run was overall lovely and she had a ton of brilliant work!
As you moved from 4-5, she needed HUGE connection, really looking hard at her eyes because that line is a bit weird and unexpected (especially for a young dog). Nice recovery!When you got the off course tunnel after the teeter: you were blocking the backside wing (can see it even from this angle) so as you drove forward, she read the line of motion as a tunnel cue. On the fix-and-go re-do, you were further over and a bit more decelerated, so the backside was clear.
The rest was gorgeous!
2nd run –
>. In second video she took the backside of third jump after DW is that me or her striding? >
Both! With a fast running DW, the line goes to the backside. And your running line was very close to the DW and very forward, which supported the backside line, so that is where she went (she does have nice understanding of backsides!) On your fix-and-go, you were further over and turned your shoulders sooner, so she got the front side easily. Excellent use of fix-and-go to work the whole line again, rather than just one jump.
It was hard to see what happened in the middle because someone had their head in the way 🙂 but it looks like you lost connection at 1:03 so she came off the line.
But overall, as annoying as it is to not get the clear rounds here, you are SO CLOSE to nailing it. In your next runs/next trials, look for those backside lines: if you want the backside, make sure you are not blocking the wing. If you do *not* want the backside but the line might take her to the backside, be sure to give her early turn cues to get the front.
Nice job here!
TracyHi!
> I videoed my walk through (click/treat #1 for me), haven’t watched it side by side yet (I’ll probably have to use two devices). >
If you still have the original footage, you can send it to me via wetransfer.com (my address is agilityuniversity@gmail.com) and I can do the overlay or side by side. I think the run was a little faster than the walk through, so you can try to get your walk throughs faster than the run because that makes the runs feel easier.
> I ATTEMPTED to use a bunch of verbals he doesn’t know yet, slapping them on (click/treat #2). I wasn’t perfect in actually saying the right ones when running, but I tried. He’s probably never gonna actually learn them, but at least I still moved well enough to cue the things physically, something I struggle doing successfully in trials (splitting brain power between using verbals and moving well). Click/treat #3 I guess?>
Yes and Yes! Yay! Part of the verbal emphasis with Roots is getting you ready for running Beat.
>We hit a little snag (ok, it had the potential to be a HUGE snag). As I was walking him out to the course, he discovered a nest of baby bunnies RIGHT WHERE THE START LINE WAS.>
Holy sh*t that is a huge distraction! Good boy Roots!!! Good job to you for not freaking out (I probably would have freaked out LOL) Thanks for keeping it in the video, it was cool to see! I also would have responded strongly when he went to the nest, probably with something like a “HEY I WILL SHIV YOU IF YOU EAT THE BABY BUNNIES” LOL! I have a big “no killing things except mosquitos and ticks” rule here.
But seriously, that is a super hard distraction and he was AMAZING. He was for sure aware of the nest, but look at him hold the long stay and focus forward to the jump when asked. WOW!!
> I videoed my walk through (click/treat #1 for me),>
Yes, another click/treat here for sure, because during the walk through there were multiple spots where I could see where the dog was. That is the goal!! And I could hear verbals. Yay! I bet you can be more aggressive in the walk throughs: loud and faster! I like your handling plan overall, and the cool part is that I could tell what it was in the walk through and where Roots would be.
The first run went super! 1 through 14 was really spot on! My only suggestion was to add a brake arm on 10 (jump between weaves and tunnel) to tighten up the turn – but you added it in run 2 and it was very effective at 4:23! Super!
The lead out 1-2-3 looked good and you got a nice turn on 3! The 5-6 line might be able to be handled from more of a distance going into the BC 6-7 – sending to 5 from further can draw him into the turn with a slightly tighter line. You can also play with not diogn the BC to flip him away over 7 and maybe even layer the 6/18 jump when he is on the DW. Excellent send to the weaves off the DW!!
>Only mistake on our first try was the wrong side of the threadle wrap. Click/treat to me for not losing it and feeling like a failure for messing that up!>
Yes, you needed to turn your line of travel more to set the line to the threadle, basically turning away from the jump – you were facing the front of the jump a bit too much so he read it as a front side (or you can try for a BC there to set up a push wrap). It was a small blooper but you are DEFINITELY not a failure! When you did the fix at 2:34, you turned to the line better (note your feet were pulling away from the jump) and he was great.
One thing that was also strong about that moment was that you didn’t fix it on one jump – you fixed it in flow from the line before it, which means the handling had to be fixed and not just doing it as a one-jump exercise 🙂
You absolutely nailed it at 4:32.
The rest looked great! The 17-21 was really hard but you were very connected and timely, so he was able to read it. Yay! You might consider slicing him to the right on 20, as it might be faster that the wrap to the left – and not considerably more yardage either.
>Another click/treat for me STOPPING THE VIDEO and going to sit in the shade and actually watching it back before attempting the whole course a second time. Pretty sure it was my feet turning towards the front of the bar that cued the front side. >
Yay! You are in the minority, most people keep going without really seeing what happened. But watching the video really helps us see what happened to fix for the next run. I agree with your assessment that it was your feet turning to the front of the bar.
>Second try, I was trying to get him to be more clear about focusing on jump 1 before releasing, to me it looked liked he was looking at jump 2, but he self released and took 1 any way, probably because he DID know which jump it was and was like “get on with it, I know where we’re going”.>
Ha! Yes – he was like “I KNOW WHICH JUMP IT IS, SURELY YOU HAVE RELEASED ME” LOL And right before the release on the next run, he looked towards it and leaned towards it to really emphasize that he knew – he cracks me up!
>Next attempt I never really gave him turning cues on 5, I was still saying go on go to cue going straight after the a frame to the jump, never gave a verbal or physical turn cue really. >
Yes – and he had an impressive response to his go cue LOL!! It was not a problem on the first run so no worries about the extra credit here.
The last run looked awesome, start to finish!
> (No click/treat there, but I AM trying!)>
No worries about imperfect verbals here and there! You still get rewarded for your effort 🙂 The more you do that, the easier it gets!
One other thing worth talking about is that your connection is looking great – on the first run and the last run (both of the full runs), your connection was spot on throughout! That makes a huge difference in the runs, he always knew where to go. And most of your verbals seemed pretty automatic – yes, there are spots where you are still thinking about it but for the most part, you are getting them out while maintaining great connection. That is also leading to lovely timing – I don’t see any late parts to bug you about 🙂 Connection makes good timing more automatic!
Now, of course we want this success to transfer to trials. How often do you run big courses like this at home, start to finish? That is something to do more frequently if is it rare. If it is something you do pretty often, we can add more distractions to make both of you feel like you are in a more trial-like state 🙂
Fantastic job here!
TracyHi!
Yay! I am so excited that Grace gets to play! She did great here!
>There is a question about how much string cheese I should be feeding her but I thought it would be easy to find. Not so much apparently.>
Yes, we don’t want her to have too much cheese 🙂 I think it did take an extra moment to find it but it was still pretty quick.
> In fact she was more motivated for the toy which is probably a good thing!>
She was very happy to play this with the toy! So you can do some cheese but mainly the toy as the reward. You can also spread out the jumps so she finds that at bigger and bigger distances – gradually spread them out as much as possible so she learns some big distance skills 🙂
And you can add the 2nd level of lazy games too! Great job here!
Tracy
