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Hi!
>I’ve never known weather like this before, it’s been a few weeks since he even saw a jump, poor Grin, so we’re definitely playing catch up.>
Ugh! We have had a CRAZY summer here – intense heat and wild storms. I hope our winter is calm and your summer is calm too!
The session went really well! Nice job mixing in rewards for the stay, he is doing a great job letting you take long lead outs.
He is reading the blinds really well – I think you can start them even sooner (which means finishing them sooner too!)
Comparing to the FCs – you were starting them when he landed from 1 at :48 and 1:05 (he read them great!) so you can start the BCs at that same timing: when you see him landing from 1 and looking at 2, do the BC so you are re-connected in time to see him take off for 2. The blinds were starting as he was approaching takeoff of 2 (like at :33) so starting them earlier will get the turns tighter which is effective when there are obstacles out ahead, like a tunnel 🙂
>The only one he wasn’t sure of was the last one (push) and to be honest this is not something that I do much with any of my dogs. I broke it down to just one jump and he was fine so we will work more on this to put it in the toolbox. >
The lead out push was definitely the hardest one for him. You can place yourself more between the uprights of jump 2 to set the line, kind of like a serpentine (then move to the next line as he lands from 1).
>What scenarios would you use this one in compared to running into the blind which would be my normal default? Tighter turn? More control?>
A couple of places where this would show up:
– yes to the tighter turn/more control, especially for dogs that come off the start line with rocket blasters on their feet 🙂
– also, this would be more effective than a BC if the course had a tight turn on 3 and then you had to move to the right side of the screen, where you had your dog walk set up.
– we are seeing a variation of this on the most international-style openings and on the actual international courses too 🙂 The first 3 jumps would be more of an offset crazy serpentine line, with us in the lead out push position on jump 2.Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>She is a speedy little demon. >
Yes! It is o fun to watch her!!!!
> can see myself doing more blinds than fronts. >
Agree! I figure most of the front crosses will be on tight wraps. And most of the rest will be blinds (or rear crosses :))
>Most of the barking is courtesy of the neighbour dogs. I figure it is good practice for the trial environment.
Perfect! She didn’t seem to be bothered by it at all.
Her understanding of the lines is great and your connection was great – the session is looking really good! I only have one suggestion: start the crosses sooner 🙂
She might be small but she definitely needs the FC and BC info at the same time as the big dogs 🙂 You were tending to start the FC and BC side change as she took off for the middle jump, which set up a wider turn and made it harder to show her the next wrap.
For example, on the FC at 1:07 – you started it when she was in the air over the middle jump so she landed wide. Then it was hard to show her the connection needed for the wrap jump after the FC. You can also see it at 1:37 with the blind cross – she was already in the air when you started it, so she was wide on landing then had a little trouble finding the next jump because your connection was delayed (finishing the blind).
You can start the FC and BC sooner by seeing her land from the jump after the tunnel then starting the cross. Your motion will help support the middle jump and that way you can get the side change sooner for a tighter turn and showing her the next jump.
Plus, since she seems to know her lines really well 🙂 you don’t need to be as close to the jump after the tunnel – you can be an arm’s length away running towards the middle jump, so that makes the crosses even easier!
I bet that starting the crosses sooner will make you like the blind crosses even more 🙂
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
Really nice session here!! Most of the reps were really excellent and you made good adjustments when there was a small blooper.
The GO reps at the beginning were really strong, connecting to him on the wing exits was really helpful! And you had great timing of the toy throws.
Left turns – I thought your timing was good. He might have been a bit wide at first because he was slipping falling in the tunnel the first couple of times. He got a little more careful after that so it was easier for him to turn on the exit.
Speaking of slipping: You can see him have a big slip and fall at 2:10 on a GO rep – I am not sure if the tunnel was wet or if it was just a little slippery. To help him stay upright 🙂 you can soften the angles of entry so he doesn’t slip.
The left at 2:31 was a little late – he was already entering the tunnel when you did the verbal and shoulder turn so he exited straight then turned after he exited. So definitely keep the timing earlier like you did on the left turn cues earlier in the video, so he can see and hear the cues when he is still 4 or 5 feet before entering.
Rear crosses: the first rep to the right at 1:07 was late so he turned left – the last thing he saw before he entered the tunnel was you facing the left turn side. Good job rewarding on the correct side anyway!
But your cues were MUCH better at 1:27 and 1:43 – he definitely saw the RC info before he entered because you can see him change directions right at the entry. You did a left turn RC at the end and he saw enough of the pressure on the line that he could easily get it. Super!
When he was pushing away to the wing near the camera when you were trying to set the RC (like at 1:33), it was because you were blocking his line tot he tunnel. He had no questions when you gave him room to see the line.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>Tandem turns and lap turns we hadn’t done these in a while you needed a little refresher and then he was good as gold.>
The turn aways with these are not natural for the dogs, so the refresher was perfect!
The lap turns were hard for him when you did it just on one wing but they were PERFECT when you did them in sequence! Yay! Great job facing him and showing him the arm cues and step back with the leg to set the turn.
>I think on my tandem turns I get turned towards him too much sometimes because I’m using my offside arm, and I think my little armies are short>
For the tandems (and threadle wraps in the future), let the upper body do all the work 🙂 Keep your feet going straight (parallel to his running line) until after he turns away from you.
For example, at :54 you turned your feet to the wing (as part of the cue to come around the wing) before he had passed you and committed to it, so he went to the other side. Compare to 1:01 and 1:56 where you kept your feet straight til after he has passed you and committed to the correct side of the wing – those went great! And you can really see great feet on the line at 2:22 (the last rep) – perfect!
Now, at 2:05 you accidentally set the threadle wrap/tandem turn line by turning your feet away and shoulders from the line to the correct side of the wing (‘front’ side) so he did a pretty perfect threadle wrap 🙂
And your arms – I also have short little arms LOL!! You might find it easier to exaggerate the opposite arm by also moving the dog side arm back to him, so the dog side arm is not blocking the cue arm 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!!
This is a GREAT question about a common challenge especially in Border Collies!
>So now I’m worried she thinks that is the game.>
She probably doesn’t think it is super fun as a game – she probably loves agility a LOT so is a bit unsure of exactly what the stay is and perhaps the stand then sit is part of it, in her mind. Plus, bear in mind that her adolescent brain might not even realize that her butt has come up at first because she is very excited to play agility 🙂
And we don’t want a lot of failure or pressure on the start line, because that can build in stress and more arousal, then the entire start line stay will go sideways. We want to make it easy and fun for you both, while maintaining criteria of course – because you both want to release and run the sequence! I am sure neither of you really want to spend the whole time re-setting the sit stay 🙂
So what to do? Some ideas for you 🙂
– Change the position! To be honest, the sit is the hardest position for BCs because of this butt-rising issue 🙂 I have found that a stand stay or a down stay are better positions for BCs because they are more natural for them when they are aroused. That stand stay is harder to maintain because you can’t always see the foot movement. But the down stay is easy for you both to maintain.
Plus, changing the position takes out any possible ‘poisoning’ of the sit (added stress, accidental releases when she was standing, the back-and-forth of sit-stand-sit-stand etc)
– Add more arousal in the stay from the start in training, but less distance away from her for now. So if you choose to work from a down-stay, for example… get her really ramped up with some tugging then do a SHORT lead out with her in a stay. Your role is to release before she moves out of the position.
The reason I recommend adding in more arousal is because when she is on the start line, she will be very aroused! So she needs to learn how to stay even when she is crazy stimulated. She probably has a great stay when she is calm, but the jumps/tunnels/etc are going to be very stimulating. And since we can’t simply calm her nor do we want her calm for course running… it is much easier to teach her to stay in high arousal.
The reason I recommend doing very short stays in high arousal for now is because success is the gateway to the best stays – the failure of being asked to sit again will potentially create frustration (for you both :)) which can create over-arousal, which creates stress on the start line (for you both).
So for now, dial back the length of the lead out and only go as far as you can to ensure success in the new position. Then gradually ping-pong your way to longer lead outs, alternating short and longer lead outs t build it up. And live by the 2-failure rule: if she fails once (standing up, for example) then you need to make the next one easier so she can be successful. And if she fails twice? Definitely make it easier.
And be unpredictable about where you are when you release: it is possible she knows that you consistently release when you are one step past the 2nd jump so she is anticipating and getting more aroused. Dogs are brilliant at predicting our patterns LOL!!! So the ping-pong approach will keep you unpredictable in a good way 🙂
Building it up like this in high arousal will take you a bit longer to get to those 3 or 4 jump lead outs… but they will be *solid* and that is what we want of course 🙂
>(had my husband watch because I had to look where I was going)<
This is good and helpful for criteria maintenance! And with young dogs, I prefer to watch them as I lead out the whole time (no change to look at where I am going because the stay is more important :))
You can also do high arousal stays as part of daily home life – for example, when I am letting all of my dogs out first thing in the morning, they are all NUTS 😂🤣. So I ask the young dogs for stays while the older dogs go outside and run around (then the youngsters are released to go outside). Where in life do you have really exciting situations that you can use stays for?
We can also add in a mat or platform or something to help with the stay if we need to: a sit platform, for example. But those might not be that helpful (she can still move) and they are pretty difficult to fade out so I prefer to train the stay on the flat without it.
Let me know what you think and keep me posted on how it goes!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went really well!
I thought your connection and timing was super strong on the first part (starting dog-on-right). The timing was a stride later on the dog-on-left side to start but then you moved it up a bit and ended up really strong too! The gaol is to start the BC earlier enough before he arrive at the wing so you are finished and reconnected before he exits the wing.
Connection was particularly strong on the exits of the middle wing (FC and spins) – he was super tight and had no questions! Yay!
If you want more challenge… add more distance between the tunnel and the wings so everything happens faster because he is faster – or shorten the distances so everything happens faster because there is less time & room to do it all 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I took the weekend off from trialing (the FOMO of missing out on the Cup in Barto 2 years in a row is REALLY tough,>
Yeah, it is hard to miss that event… but even the folks I know from North Carolina are complaining about the heat and humidity there. That is impressive, because NC is basically all heat and humidity, all year LOL!!! It just gets really hot there in the summer.
>but I picked up my new to me van this weekend so there’s that!)>
I saw the photo on Facebook!!! It looks great! Are you going to make it into one of those super cool mini-RV sleeper vans? Looks big enough for you, terriers, and a Bippet to have a grand time. A friend of mine just did that and it is impressive (with much jealousy from me LOL)
>So we did another course training. I had my comfy chair in the shade, a big bottle of ice cold lemon water, all ready to do mid training session video analysis!>
Sounds so nice!!
Nice job with this course, it is a beast!
On the walk through, your handling choices were very clear, which is great! And it looks like the pace of the walk through was fast too.
The only spot I have a question about was the twisty spot after the weaves. It was hard to see where the invisible dog was because you were connecting down at your side when he would be behind you. So that is a spot to keep looking back to him.
Runs: He was on fire! Going fast! Finding lines!
>This one felt really tight after I built it, especially the opening.>
Having it a little crunchy there was good practice for some of the tighter UKI courses and also the courses from international designers set at AKC distances (ewwwww). I have seen that happening and it is definitely challenging! Plus, he was really feeling good and fast and looking for lines, which make the tight opening more challenging for sure.
On the first run, you had a really big step to 2 at 1:02 with sent him past it (I thought he was going to find the weave entry! Yeeeehaw!)
Much better on the 2nd run, really nice!>Then the jump-dog walk, I had to really hang back and hold him, which made the push off the dog walk hard. I couldn’t figure out a way to run the other side of the dog walk to rear the jump after it. >
I don’t think there is a good way to get to the other side of the DW without setting a poopy entry and getting too far behind with the teeter, so I liked that you were working out how to keep him on your left on the DW.
The threadle option you did on the second run and 3rd run was great for getting up the line for the DW – he was feeling support spicy and flew by it when you opened your arm back, so you can drop your arm in and be SUPER compelling with a big verbal and eye contact. You can even shake your threadle hand as if saying “right here, buddy!” It looks like you did that more at 2:30 and at 2:59 and he was great.
Sending to 4 with 2 hands and the exploding up the line to the dog walk work well here at 2:32 and 3:02, but he did look at the off course jump (your send and go was brilliantly executed, so the motion of it might has caused him to consider the bigger line).
The other option would be to send to 4 on a spin – it would still get you up the line and should guarantee a tight turn to the DW.
>He missed a bunch of dog walks, but pushes are a weak spot for him, as is anything where I’m racing him, he’s much better if I just sort of jog.>
The line went well at 2:35 and even better at 3:05 – did he miss the DW on those? You ran a great line and got the nice turn (on the first run, you over-turned towards him so he read it like a tandem turn).
>And if he really doesn’t know where he’s going after the dog walk, he will also miss, and this was sort of a hope and pray scenario. >
Did you originally teach it with a mat or something? You can do some back chaining with your original teaching aid, to show him the ‘new fancy stuff’ that we surely didn’t teach this generation of dogs when they were young 🙂 That way he can hopefully have more success getting the contact and finding the new line.
>He got the weave entry on the first attempt, but on subsequent attempts I had to stay dog on left and not rear cross until he was out of the tunnel under the dog walk. >
Yes, that was interesting! He absolutely nailed it the first run. Mayne he was anticipating the new line on the other runs, causing the miss? I didn’t see anything in the handling that would cause it. Waiting for him to get the entry like you did at 3:16 is fine of course, because you can easily run to the next spot while he is weaving.
You can also hang back with him at the teeter and send ahead to the jump-tunnel, so you can get a blind between the 2 tunnels to set up the weave entry.
The line from the teeter to the weave exit looked AWESOME on the first run!
Super nice job with the handling and connection on the 11-16 section! You were much more connected and clearer (and quicker!) than the walk through. The 2nd time through there was even better, more connected! He was a little sticky at 3:29 because your hand was at your side and you were not looking back at him, so he was less sure of where to be heading to 15.
>I was surprised how much support he needed to take the jump after the a frame too.>
I think the rear cross on the tunnel before it is what makes it harder… but also the RC is the best/only option for a fast dog, so it was good practice to be able to get him to accelerate straight after a RC! You can add a little decel as you are supporting it, to tighten up the turn. And the cue to 20 that you added on the last run was very effective – on the first run, you were parallel to it so he layered it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Really good session here with a super hard skill!
Finding the tunnel at the beginning (and end) was hard – those poles have a lot of value! Giving her that one extra step helped, even when you were hanging back – it seemed to affirm that yes, you wanted the tunnel 🙂
The weaves went really well when you did *not* praise the entry (praising later in the poles seemed fine). She came out of the entry just about every time when you said “yes” when she entered. This is probably because ‘yes’ is a reward marker and she thought the reward was coming and it caused her to look at you 🙂 So the easiest thing to do is not say it until later in the poles or when she exits.
Also, letting her get past you into the entry helped – when you had too much motion like at :51, she thought you were cueing the tunnel based on motion.
The countermotion skill on the soft sided entry (starting dog on left) was harder than the ‘hard’ side entry (starting dog on right) – she was getting it really well by the end, so definitely keep going with letting her get past you into the entry and moving to the countermotion but not quite running yet – too much speed was pulling her out.
She had an easier time on the ‘hard’ side entry, so you can start adding more speed on that!
You added throwing the toy early to help keep her straight and moving through the poles – I thought that was a really clever idea and would be very helpful!!! Roux didn’t agree LOL!! So even though we humans thought it was a good idea, she was more successful when you threw it as she finished the weaves.
The countermotion on the exit was great, it looks like she had no question on that! Super! You can do that on 12 poles now because you can get further across and throw in a blind cross too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Both dogs had no questions if they went through the tunnel and I stayed on the other side of the DW sending them to jumps on their side.>
Great! This is a useful skill that is popping up everywhere in agility!
>And one day I actually made up a course with independent weave challenges with a tunnel and a jump. I set up 12 weaves next to gating next to a straight tunnel next to a jump like a sandwich. I found a lot of challenges with that set up.>
That is so fun! IT is good to embed the challenges into a course and see if the dogs can ‘find’ the correct obstacle (and if we can cue the correct obstacle 🙂 )
> Alonso needed the come or out command then the name of the obstacle to take earlier than Mookie. I also needed to keep my arms low with Alonso. >
That might just be the difference in their experience levels showing, and Alonso needs cues earlier and clearer to be able to process the cues.
>I will need the water bottle training for life 😊>
Ha! I think we all do!!!
> It has been a challenging summer with the heat. Very little backyard time which I love. Both of my agility boys are showing that they have nice skills. And Buddy’s nose work training is going great.>
Nosework and flyball have been great sports this summer… because they are air conditioned! It has been a brutally hot summer to try any outdoor agility – all of the demos were filmed at about 6am, and it was still terribly hot. Ewwww! But the boys are doing great!!!
Thanks for the update 🙂
TracyHi!
I am sorry to hear about your mother’s passing. And it sounds like your father will get good results from the surgery but the 10 week of recovery will be hard!
Looking at the videos: In Synch is doing really well!
Video 1 – Ex 1: very nice! Yo can decelerate into the FC wrap to tighten it up. Great job staying in motion!Ex 2: this went great! You had the decel on the wrap so she was very tight, followed by a lovely send down the line to the tunnel. That allowed you to easily get the BC to the backside after the tunnel. Super!
Ex 3: The beginning was a little cut off from this one but the rest was GREAT. You had a great balance of tight lines on the wraps and BIG use of distance to let you get the blinds. Really great!!!
Ex 4 – this went well too! For the wrap on 3: You can decelerate and rotate so your feet are almost facing the tunnel, and then you can use your hands to turn her away for the wrap.
Nice job getting her to the backside!! Doing the FC on the landing of the backside jump did indeed show the line to the off course jump that she took. You can use the backside jump as more of a serpentine tp pull her across to the next jump – and you can blind it to get her on your left, or keep her on your right and serp the next jump.
Looking at the Go after the tunnel – she did the first one brilliantly but then was curling back to you – this was all likely due to reward placement The rewards were all coming back near you, so she thought the skill was about coming back to you (where the rewards were). After a few reps, you went to a toy (maybe a ball on one of them?) and things got better. For now, move the jump in closer and throw the toy or ball very early – that way as she exits the tunnel, she sees the jump easily AND the reward is already in motion. That will really help build up the skill.
Fusion’s video: since this is all about the walk through, that is what we will focus on 🙂
On thing in common on all of these sequences is that the walk throughs can be expanded to help get the handling more prepared so when you run her, you are very ready for all of her speed and drive on the lines.
As you walk the course – add in a lot more connection and verbals… and running 🙂 On the walk throughs, you had the handling you wanted planned – but hadn’t rehearsed ir enough yet in the walk through so the runs had some moments where she needed up f courses or with bars down.
That was mainly because during the walk through, you were looking ahead and think thinking about the handling – but you were looking forward at the obstacles and not moving that fast or dong verbals. So when you ran her, your brain had to hash out those things for the first time, which is really hard to do with a fast dog.
Things got smoother wieh you ran her throw it the 2nd time or so on each sequence, but we want you to be able to nail it on the first run 🙂
So for the next set of walk throughs, set a 5-minute timer. In those 5 minutes. Plan your handling (takes less than a minute) and spend the next few minutes running the walk through while looking at your invisible dog, saying the verbals to her, and going as fast as you can. If you are not out of breath, then you probably haven’t walked it enough 🙂 Then after 5 minutes, take a break to catch your breath… then run her. I bet the runs go really well
>I am really struggling with the some actions the turn away or when come back on me. did the one with the layering with weave tonight and was not happening will try and post tomorrow will need to rewatch videos as think i am right and then it is awkward and not work>
Post video if you have it! It might be that the cues to turn away were late – they are generally hand cues that start at the previous obstacle and some deceleration too – and a little bit of rear cross pressure on the line helps too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!!
>My next few sessions for Enzo are going to be refreshers on the contacts and start line stay. I will spare you looking at that!>
Ha! I am sure the refreshers will go well. I am very excited that he is cleared to play!!!!!!! Truly a bright spot!
>Basically, this is the picture I think we are going for (head down, drive around wing). If so, I’m in pretty good shape. If not, I need to understand why not.
> Yes! This is the picture!
. We are seeing it consistently now and that includes with a toy on the ground (he had trouble with the toy on the ground a while back, and now he is doing great with it). I think before we fade out the plank and the sit, I would ask him to do this at 18” then 20”. You can move the plank a couple of inches away from the bar so he has room to lift his front feet up without touching the bar. He did well at the height here, so now we can add in a higher height. If that goes well for a session or two… we lower the bar back to 16”, leave everything the same in terms of setup. But don’t ask for the sit anymore. He goes over the plank, organizes his feet, and jumps directly (verbal cues and physical cues will help fade the sit out, I am sure it will fade out very quickly).
If we like that at 16” then 18” then 20” – we fade the plank. He is doing great!
>Question: doing a complete circle on the backside is pretty unusual in AKC. Mostly a backside wrap is: go, do it and return. I did a few of those. Comment?>
This is true, I have not seen the full circle wrap in regular Masters and JWW (and very rarely in Premier). So your FC on the landing side, for example, worked great! It is a higher priority challenge for him to be able to do that than the full circles.
I’d say the highest priority will be the slices, like for serpentines or hard angles – those will probably be what he sees most of. Then front side wraps, then the backside semi-circles 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Oh no!! That is a bit sad 🙁 It is a BAD time of year for biting bugs. Hopefully the weather cools off and they all go away!!!!!
Good morning!
The old dude was really excited by all the speed and fun! I am glad he got a turn 🙂
Looking at the go-straight reps: you were really far ahead on the first rep, with clear connection, and she read it great!
>And then we just couldn’t get it (not all failed reps included>
On that rep at :56, you were not as far ahead and not as connected as she exited, and you were decelerating before she exited the tunnel which was a little too early.
>I stopped the session to watch the video and troubleshoot (click, treat), and as I did the solution occurred to me to try starting more lateral and using some convergence to keep her going straight after the tunnel which worked great. >
Yay for video watching!!! Definite click/treat!! The convergence also added more motion and more connection… all of that worked together to get great lines at 1:07 and on the last rep. Super!!
The soft turns to the left and right went well too. Nice timing!!! With the bigger courses in mind – you can play with peeling away laterally and *not* using deceleration to get the turn. If she sees your line before she enters the tunnel, she should turn. We can use brake arms as well – all in the name of getting you way ahead on course.
>And I think this was the first time I’ve ever rear crossed a tunnel with her and I could definitely see her slow down and think REAL HARD as she went in the tunnel… “WHAAAAT?” If only the camera had been set up to see her face!>
Yes, it would be so funny to see their faces when we add new cues LOL!!
The rear crosses went great! The first one at :28 to the left went really well. At 1:28 to the right, the RC info was late – she saw you moving on the ‘go straight’ line then just as she entered, you did the RC.
But compare that to the next RC rep – you started closer to the wing and set the RC line much earlier, so she saw it before going into the tunnel – perfect!!!
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We started the tight blinds to wraps. OMG, half the time I’m using the wrong words, especially when I added the second wing.>
To help with this and with the lines for the crosses, do you walk the sequences as if walking a course before you run him? Walk them first with the verbals – then run them without him. You can video it and then do a quick watch to see if you have the verbals and lines in the right places.
>If any of these are actually correct, then I can do better next time.>
All of the single blinds were correct! My only suggestions on those are too emphasize making the re-connection after the blind quickly and more directly back to him. You were rewarding from the dog-side hand, which is fine but be sure you are using a marker for it (it was hard to hear if you were or not) – that way he will know where to look (at the toy if there is a marker, or at the next wing if there is no marker) when the toy is right in front of his eyes 🙂
When adding the 2nd wing, you were doing a spin on it for most reps and that was good too – you can send more into it rather than go to the wing with him, which will allow you to start the FC element sooner which in turn allow you to start the BC element sooner. That way you will be finished with the BC and off his line as you cue him for the tunnel 🙂 The last rep was a FC on the wing and a RC on the tunnel, which is good to practice too! You can add a bit more countermotion to the FC on the middle wing, and then take him to the other side of the tunnel.
Nice work here!
Tracy
