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Good morning!
>Well, he’s basically a hairy mouse, so there’s that.>
HA! That seemed accurate 😂🤣
>I did notice I look like a helicopter. It’s not something I realized before this. I don’t video my sessions very often, and I know I should.>
There are times when the physics of the motion pull our arms up and out especially after sending. So bringing them in tight makes us quicker, just like figure skaters and gymnasts pull their arms in to be able to rotate really quickly.
The tunnel session with Canny went SUPER well! You nailed the blinds (and the FC at the end) in terms of timing and connection! There was one rep where standing still on the send to the wing then tunnel made your body want to do a FC but moving into them on all of the other reps made the blinds very smooth. The Fc at the end worked really well because it did indeed turn your feet to the new line.
WOWZA look at his tunnel commitment at :54 and 1:45 so you can do the BC well before he enters and get a gorgeous turn on the exit!
And he can no questions about how to exit the tunnel when you ran through the death zone 🙂 Great timing there!
And the balance reps all looked strong too.
Nifty’s session also went really well! And useful to sort out when the BC is better than the FC or vice versa.
At :20, :57, & 1:45 you did a blind on a tight exit – without a lot of motion on the send, it looked like you were having to spin really fast to get the blind. So on spots where you are stationary sending, the FC will probably make more sense to your feet 🙂 like at 1:13 and 1:37. We saw this with Canny too. But when you are in motion, the blind will be a lot easier to get the great line because you will already be moving to it.
At 1:26, you did the death zone blind so you had a lot of motion into it and the blind looked really easy and flowing, getting you way ahead while giving her clear info.
She read everything perfectly because you nailed the connection here. Yay!
Great job on these! Onwards to the one jump games!
Tracy
Hello!
>I tried to keep moving during the blinds, but moving and keeping the arms under control is a challenge.>
I think this is a challenge that you accomplished! Your arms were very much under control AND you kept moving during the blinds. Both dogs were very happy to read the lines!
I think my favorite run was from :45 – :52 with Sammy –
– you started the blind as soon as he exited the tunnel
– you were finished and connected before he took off for the jump
– he was able to run the line in extension with no questions about commitment.
SUPER!My favorite run with Jazz was 1:42 – 1:47:
– great timing of starting the blind when he exited the tunnel
– the blind was done and reconnected before he took off for the jump so he knew exactly where to be and ran it fast! He also had no commitment questions.As the blinds get tighter (and crazier :)) remember to show that big connection on the, using the arm across the body to push the dog-side arm out of the way. At 1:20 and 1:33, the timing was very good but the connection on the exit was not as clear (your dog-side arm was blocking it a little) so they were a little wider on landing.
You can also get more of the feel for running hard into them by going closer to the tunnel at the start, which will give you less time to get ahead again for the blind 🙂
Sammy also helped you keep connection on the balance reps without the blind: at :34, you looked forward and broke connection so he looked at you and ended up on the other side of the wing. Compare that to 1:02 where you kept connection beautifully and he went to the side of the wing you wanted without needing to look at you. SUPER!
Looking at the FC at the end – that can start sooner with the same timing as the blind (as soon as they exit the tunnel). This FC started late so they were wider. FCs are challenging with timing, because need to get there to be able to slow down to rotate which is really hard! This is where sending to the tunnel from further away will help if you had a turn where the FC works better.
Great job here 🙂 Let me know what you think!
TracyJazz
Good morning!
> I am wondering if I should add a wing in yet. My in person instructor had us do one last night and he wrapped too tight and it crashed 🥲🥲.>
We have a couple more things he needs to see before we add the wing – it comes in week 11 🙂 If he crashed the wing, there was something causing him to rush so be sure to slow down your handling and be super connected 🙂 We work that in the upcoming game where we add more handler speed but on a cone or barrel so he can learn to handle speed without crashing a metal or PVC wing. I think Dublin is about 7 months old? We’ve got time before we add the real stuff like wings to solidify what he needs to know to make a seamless transition 🙂
>Still having trouble figuring out verbal for the backsides. Do you have another suggestion for the slice verbal? I think we are early enough if I want to change it. >
We can come up with some good ones! Off the top of my head, taking out back and around as options:
Push
Away
Slice
Chip
SetUpI am crowd sourcing on Facebook to see what other folks are using because I need more caffeine to come up with more words 🙂
>I don’t want three backside verbals either but the 180 vs 360 has my mind going round 😂>
This situation calls for pictures! I drew some variations on backsides and noted where I would use the backside wrap versus the backside slice verbal:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HhuvkM-IvPGZU0a4CY5Yl_9BWV9-AOo3adJ026d3EnI/edit?usp=sharingLet me know what you think!
Tracy
Hello!
A question: what kind of ear buds and phone or tablet are you using? You’ve got great sound even with other sounds in the background. My airpods just don’t do the job LOL
First video: Super nice session!
He did really well at the beginning because there was some distracting barking or maybe he saw the person coming over – but he came back instantly, good boy!!!!Then when you got him back, he was perfect with the wraps when you were pretty close. Well done for your clean fast transitions from the toy to the collar to start the next rep. He had a little question when you were a step further away, but you smartly got close again because the environment was hard enough.
At 1:36 you ran to the tunnel and he was looking at you probably because there was a lot of handler speed and he was still processing the environment. You slowed down for one rep, he nailed it, then you were able to put your speed back in. Super!
2nd video – this is also going well especially because there was a dog doing agility behind him and I am sure he was aware of it! And this was the first time sequencing 3 things? He was super!!
Baby dogs need a lot of exaggerated handling, so remember to step to the wing on the sends if you are not right next to the wing. Stepping with the dog side leg helps support the send especially when you are not close to the wing. A good comparison is at 1:00 where you did not step with the dog side leg, so he had a question. Compare to 1:59: beautiful step to the wing, zero questions 🙂
In general, try to handle more with your eyes and motion and less with your hand/arm. The hand/arm was the source of a couple of questions like at 1:10 where you were pointing forward so he was unsure. Compare to the same line at 1:36 – lots more connection, less arm, and he did well!
Also, since we are now doing sequences, we have reached the official “handler error, reward the dog” stage of training 🙂 Play the 2:06 to 2:10 section in slow motion and you will see that you were accidentally cueing a blind cross there:
At 2:08, he exits the tunnel and you are looking over your left shoulder. Then you start to point forward which blocks connection and engages the opposite shoulder. So he says “aha! Blind cross!” and changes sides. That is rewardable 🙂 Compare to 3:13 where you maintained the connection on that line and he stayed on your left side to the wing.
Similar thing happened at 2:29 on the send – you were connected then you pointed forward, which broke the connection and engaged the outside shoulder so looked like a blind. He was unsure so ended up choosing the middle position between your feet.
Reward all of the small blooper moments with tugging or a reset cookie before sending again – he started sniffing because he was confused. Grown up dogs would be able to figure it out, but baby dogs need everything to be wildly clear and we humans can pay them for when we are not clear 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The set point distance is good and her striding was good. You can trigger the MM early (before you let her go) so she is looking ahead sooner. When you are thinking her toe is 100% fine, you can a little more height on bar so, up to her carpals so probably 2 more inches. The MM can be further away so she can stride out of the set point to it rather than decelerating – another 10 feet away would be great!
About the stay… fill me in on what she is doing! Separately from the other games, we can prioritize making her think that stays are the most fun EVER 🙂
>We also played with the smiley face game with wings. I realized we needed go back to the last class and work the money pinney and more rockinghorse games.>
We she having trouble finding the wings? it might have been a connection question where she needs to see more of your eyes looking at her to turn your shoulders to the line, and maybe you were pointing forward which blocks connection? Feel free to post video if you have it! And yes, refreshing the rocking horses or warming up the smiley face by just working the wing, then wing-tunnel, then tunnel-wing can jump start the game.
NIce work here! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
I think what was happening was that your brain was making connection the priority, and you were probably standing still a bit without realizing it. But your brain is correct: connection is very important! So keep reminding yourself to move forward and trust the boys. It is also a good way to see what their commitment looks like, because blinds rely on commitment. So if they go past a jump or have a commitment question, that is good to know because it gives us ideas on what they need for commitment 🙂
You and the boys are doing great!
Tracy
Good morning!
>He was locked up in the sacral area, she fixed that. Felt him all over agreed with me that she found no trigger points or tight muscles. She also looked at all the radiographs that I had and said they were very unremarkably perfect. She agreed that I should continue jump grid work and proprioception and core exercises. If the problem continues we will investigate further. On her gait plate he was standing square with expected weight on each limb.>
This is an excellent update!!! Especially that he was square on the gait plate: those are sooo revealing.
Being locked up in the sacral area makes a lot of sense – one of my dogs gets locked there and I know it immediately because he can’t properly turn to his left and will run past a jump, or tries to elevate over a jump not jump properly.
The wing to tunnel video looks great – he was committing to the wing even as you were rotated the other direction, which produced lovely turns!! Great job working the wings in isolation first then adding the tunnel.
The first rep (:35 – :40) of tunnel to wing looked fabulous! Check out your deceleration (big steps to little steps) and rotation there. You nailed it so he nailed it!
The 2nd rep didn’t have commitment (:46) – the difference is that you didn’t have decel as part of the cue. You ran hard then suddenly rotated before he was past you or locked onto the wing, so he pulled off.
You got the decel back into the cue at :52 and it was perfect again. The reps on the other sided also had the decel and looked great.Connection looked great at the exit of the FCs and also on the exit of the spins to get the other side of the tunnel. It looked like the exit of the spin was hard to get into because he whipped around the wing real fast – you can start the decel sooner (as soon as you see him exit the tunnel) which will make the rotation sooner and then the exit of the spin will be earlier too.
The tandems looked great – on the successful reps you had super nice timing of showing him the cues (arms and also the line of motion) so he could see it the instant he exited the tunnel. You can freeze the video at :37 – he is just poking his nose out of the tunnel and you are facing the line parallel to his path around the wing, arm cues already visible.
Compare to :47 as he exits the tunnel – your arm is up but your feet/body are facing the line to the other side of the wing and there was a bit of motion there too, so he took the outside of the wing. You got it on the next rep with more upper body rotation (:52) but I think the line you set at :37 was spot on. You can also see the line set at :18,
Two ‘next steps’ for you on this one:
– for the tandems where you cue the turn away like you did here, you can go closer to the tunnel so he sees you moving forward into it when he exits the tunnel
– you can also turn this into threadle wrap by setting the line like you did and keep your feet facing forward. And hang out near the wing to see if he will turn himself away. You can warm up the skill on one wing and then add motion!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Having people & dogs around is always great! It is a pretty social sport 🙂 and much needed experience for him to be able to ignore other things in the environment. Great job rewarding him!
Straight lines 4 ways:
The Go rep went really well!
>Backsides still hard… an I can’t spit the right word>
Plan the word during the walk through 😂
On the first rep – a little more connection needed on the way to the backside – look directly to his eyes (say the verbal to his eyeballs) like you did on the 2nd rep and 3rd rep of it. You can start the connection sooner so you don’t have to run as far up the line – that was pushing him a bit wide past the wing.Ladder part 1 – the video was titled singing ladder so I was waiting for you to bust out into a song LOL!
He is blasting out of the tunnel, which is great! You can add more of letting him see you shift from running to decel as he exits to get a little more collection. The steady motion sent him wide on rep 1 and past the wing on rep 2 when you blocked it from view. He was a good boy going to the other wing! Good reward!
You did that bit of decel at 1:20 and the line was clearer and his turn was really nice! You did one decel too at 1:48 but it can come sooner – and don’t block the wing 🙂 Be a step further over so he can fully see the wing to lock onto it.
He found the wings on the last rep really well – he pushed the wing as you took off and got really exciting and he was exiting the wing, so try to add a little more room between the wings (15 feet) and that way you can be earlier with the cues as you move away. The exciting moments here (and in the next video) were happening as he exited the wing so trying ti earlier can help with the pushing the wings. If he still pushes the wings, then we will slow down the motion for a bit.Ladder video 2:
Looks like you are working the mechanics of getting the toy back without re-gripping and he did really well here! Much cleaner!He pushed the wing at :48 (same reason as above, so same suggestion as above :))
On rep 1 on the other side: excellent decel on the wing after the tunnel and you were letting him see the whole wing, no blocking part or all of it – so he turned brilliantly.
The 2nd rep on that side was even better! Excellent connection, he could see the wings, verbals sounded good and you were chill around the wings so he didn’t push them. SUPER!!!The wingin’ it overall looked great! Well done 🙂
Countermotion game:
>I should not make stuff up as I go. lol! He did fine. I didnt walk the course lol!!>
This is generally a bad decision with baby dogs 😂 😆
He was trying to sort it out because I think you were spitting out verbals and handling without planning so it was a little late for some of it and then fell off the rails with the race track on the first rep. He got his toy so he forgives you, though.
The 2nd run was super! Lots of nice early rotation and he had no questions about committing. He liked the tunnel as part of it and the race track had the right connection and motion, so it as easy for him. YAY!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning –
>but who knows if he had just tired his own brain on something beforehand, all on his own, lol.>
Ha! This is entirely possible with a teenage boy BC 🙂
T
Good morning!
Sly says this was the easiest game ever 🙂 I think you had fantastic connection on the exits of the blinds (and the fronts you did too). Easy peasy, fast and fun, he had no questions and he rated it 11/10 in his review. 🙂
The only suggestion might be as you are running to those flying blinds, you can bring your arms in to just run rather than keep them extended out away from your shoulders – that will make the blinds even quicker.
Since this was pretty perfect – onwards to the one jump games! Have fun!
Great job!
TracyHi! This went really well!
I agree that Sammy was happy to drive ahead of you to the wing after the jump… and Jazz thought were crazy LOL!! It might have been that you were asking him to drive really far to a wing so maybe he thought it was weird, plus you were hanging back because you were setting up for the blind. You can replace the wing with a jump to see if that makes more sense for him, and throw rewards for driving to it to see if that helps him leave you for it.
>He speeds up after the wrap but I am not able to get him with speed into the wrap.>
You can add in rewards happening right at the wrap wing: throw his favorite toy right past the wing even as you do the FC and run the other way, so he gets rewarded for going all the way out there. If he likes a Manners Minder, you can tuck it behind the wing and reward him for going to it.
For the blinds: you did a great job getting back to the blind cross line and getting the connection. SUPER!!!
You can actually run forward more before doing the blind – when Jazz or Sammy are wrapping the wing, you can have them on your left arm as you run away towards the wing you started at. And when you see them exit the wing wrap, that is when you can do the blind to your right side.
You were starting the blind before they exited the wrap, then waiting at the jump for a bit to be sure they committed. That kept you in the death zone ☠️🤣😂 so they both slowed down, to collect because of deceleration and to not hit you 🙂
But when you ran the whole time like at 1:06, Sammy really extended beautifully 🙂 So doing the blind a couple of steps later will help: staying on the left arm as you run forward until they exit the wrap, then keep running and blinding to the right arm should be perfect!
Great job here! Let me know what you think.
Tracy
Hi!
>And I have a game coming soon to teach the pups to have fun even when we humans mess us LOL! 😂
>oh do I need this 😂😂😂😂Ha! Yes, I came up with the game when I realized it was easier to teach the pups what to do when I screwed up, because I was unable to stop screwing up hahaha
>ok. I will have to figure 2nd verbal. I use Dig dig for front side wraps. Wondering if too confusing to use back since that has been back up?>
Back might work in both situations because the context is so different, but better to have a different one. Other verbals I have heard are “circle” and “wrap”.
>So like the exercise I did last week on the jump stantion?
Yes, applied to bigger wider things now so he can generalize it a bit.
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
A break is always good! Rest for the body and mind 🙂
The wingin’ it is going really well. He is committing really nicely to the wings, especially to the circle wraps!
Great job with connection on all the different wing challenges: he knew where to be on the exit of the FCs versus the spins. And he knew where to be on the circle wraps: your connection looking back behind you really helped support the line. He was thinking so hard on the circles but did a great job!
I am having an internal debate about the tunnel exits: does he need to be tighter going from the tunnel to the wing or do we let him rip! He was a little wide to the wing on most of the tunnel exits. You can try calling his name before he enters the tunnel to get a slight adjustment in line, as long as we don’t bleed off speed.
He did well with the backside circles here too! Be sure to connect as he exits the tunnel – you were looking forward on some of them so he started looking at you.
The tandem turns are looking super – I don’t think he had any errors at all, reading the cues really well. He was waiting for you to flip him back, which is perfectly appropriate for tandems. But you can now move forward to making them more like threadle wraps: just stay near the wing, feet facing forward and see if he will turn himself away 🙂 If he doesn’t you can help with a small hand gesture and we can fade it out.
>Also, I forgot to post this one last week but we had tried adding in some turns while Shaelyn stayed ahead with the bread toy the whole time. He said it was very hard at first but then seemed to figure it out. We have not been able yo try it again yet.>
He was a really good boy! It was hard, as expected. He figured it out really well and the last couple of wrap reps were really strong. You can ask Shaelyn to be in the exact same spot each time with the toy on the ground – that way he won’t notice or cue off of any changes in her position or where the toy is (he is 100% smart enough to notice all that LOL!)
Great job!
TracyHi!
>On a FB post today, a dog-sport friend posted a video highlighting working her young BC on threadle wraps, something she didn’t feel she’d seen much of yet in NADAC. It caught my attention – as well as reinforced my trying to learn this. 🙂>
That is funny! Threadle wraps are incredibly popular in UKI and the ISC levels of AKC… and they are geeting more popular in regular AKC. Now it sounds like they are also on the radar in NADAC – threadle wraps are everywhere LOL!
Looking at the videos:
He did really well with the 1 wing game! He had several moments where he got close to the wing but didn’t fully wrap it. In those moments versus the moments where he did the wrap, the magic was in the decel. When you had a big decel but faced forward, he committed nicely! When you didn’t decel or turned too soon, he came off the wing. So you can add a big forward facing decel because that commits him to the wing and also cues the tight turn.
> It looks like my hands/toy transfer are drawing his attention to my hands – and maybe I’m early to break connection?>
Yes, I think that was part of it – when the toy was moving, it blocked connection and drew his attention to your hands. So you can stuff the toy in a pocket for now 🙂 We don’t need a precision reward for these games, so it will still be very effective to whip it out after the sequence is finished. That way you can focus on connection and not worry about where the toy is during the run.
On the 2nd video:
>or at least pointing to Skizzle, not the wings (brain understands, but in the moment “try harder = point at the jump” for some reason).>
This is so relatable! Something about our primate origins and human brains makes us want to use our hands to point at things, so it is actually a lot harder than it sound to *not* point at the wing! That is why I use running with a drink in the hand as a handler training game: it gives us better awareness of our hands and arms.
You can have the toy tucked away in a pocket for this one too – the toy switches were drawing his attention and making it harder for you as well.
His commitment is getting better and better here! On the lines where you kept moving forward and decelerated facing forward, he was committing really well! He had a couple of questions about commitment when you stopped short and didn’t use a longer decel – that was often when the dog-side leg didn’t step forward so he was not sure if he should go or not. So as you decelerate, be sure to step forward with your dog-side leg and he will commit closer to 100% of the time.
> So I was pleased to finally be moving myself kind-of to the right place related to the wings.>
Yes! Position near the wings really helped him and that was a big part of why his commitment looked so much better, even with the the really hard wraps. So exciting!
This is one of the harder games because everything happens so fast – but he did great! Nice work to you for sorting out how to support the lines!
Tracy
Yay! I am glad she is back in action! Her teeter session went really well. Adding speed from the wing wrap seemed to be no problem and it looks like there was a bit of teeter movement too. She was very focused on her target then after eating was like “where are you, human?” LOL! So you can stick a little closer to her for now so she doesn’t seem surprised when you are not right there 🙂
You can keep adding tiny bits of tip here, and we started the bang game this week which will be a nice balance to the mountain climber.
Great job here!
Tracy
