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Hi! This is looking great!! And I loved hearing her human and animal audience cheering in the background 🙂 You all make it so fun for her and I agree, I think she really enjoys it.
Seq 1: The lead out blind looked great – timing was really good and she reads the blind super quick! You can lead out further so you can be moving towards 3 sooner and to set the line sooner, since she is moving so fast.
When you did the lead out to the throwback, you can get close to #3, close enough to touch it. On the first rep, she turned well but I agree that picking her up on you right will be clearer for her.
At :24 you were right on the line to the tunnel then moved backwards at :29 so she read it as the cue for the tunnel (backwards motion is the same as forwards motion LOL!) Note how at :56 you were right at 3 and she never looked at the tunnel – perfect!Sequence 2:
This went REALLY well too!Both of your handling options on 3-4 looked great – and what you did 3-4 changed the line 5-6. When you went to the takeoff side of 3, the RC at 5 went better because you were not as far ahead. The BC on landing of 3 was great, but it did put you a little far ahead of her at 1:24, 1:37 , 1:47 and 1:59 – so the RC was not as smooth there. You can make it more smooth by getting the BC then decelerating at 4 til she catches up to set the RC, then move forward up the line.
The BC on the ending line 8-9 on the landing of 8 worked GREAT at 2:06, because it got you further ahead up the last line.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Somehow I thought using my threadle word, somehow turned it into a threadle.
The verbal does turn it into a threadle – it names her behavior, not yours LOL! Her behavior on both of these videos is threadle. Your behavior on the previous video was forced front and on today’s video is threadle LOL!
The lead out threadles look good, she seemed to have no trouble reading them. And you had your threadle arm in position before the release, which is great!
Question – have you considered using one arm for the threadle rather than the cross arm? The one-armed threadle here n these lead outs is soooo much easier than the cross arm. The cross arm might be why they feel awkward. The one-arm threadle is very easy 🙂
>>We made the big move of entering 1 speedstakes run each day at a UKI trial over Labor Day weekend at 16s to do NFC and play around.>>
YES! And for UKI NFC, you don’t even have to jump 16, you can put her at any height (just talk to the trial secretary). nd you can have a helper in the ring, for toy throws, etc.
>>Dellin is making good progress, but she definitely has opinions, so we’ve been respecting that and working with her. I keep every session to 4 reps and that seems to be working for her. Would you be open to seeing a bit of teeter video?>>
I would be happy to! What are her opinions? Most dogs have opinions about the teeter 🙂 Looking forward to it!!!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyHi!
She is doing well with her lefts and rights here! The dogs sometimes trot when we start this, so no worries about that and we can tweak the mechanics to get her bouncing more:
To get more power into this, you can change her line up differently. Rather than start with her having to turn away from you into it (which is slower), have her start at your side and facing the direction you want her to go (like you did at :41 for example). Have her line up at your side, facing the wings, with you holding her collar: then say left or right a few times while still holding her… then let go and she will move through the little pinwheel.
Nice work here! Let me know how it goes when you line her up at your side.
Tracy
Hi!
This is good information from Changtse that the noise is concerning to her! It is indeed very loud and bouncy – each hit of the board produces multiple noises as it rebounds, rather than one quiet noise. So, watching these 2 videos, a couple of suggestions:– dampen the noise a lot by putting towels or cloth so that when the board moves, it doesn’t rattle as much and it is more stable (doesn’t bonce around behind her). Put the sound dampeners in 3 places: where the board meets the Teach it, where the board meets the ground, and on the teeter base (you can put tunnel bags on the teeter base to stabilize and quiet it).
– use insanely high value treats or her favorite toy like a ball. And when the teeter makes a noise, throw the toy or treat far from the teeter so she runs to go get it 🙂 That will keep her pumped up from the running, and get her away from the noise (which is a bit of negative reinforcement to go along with the positive reinforcement).
– You can be sitting – that seemed to go better than when you were standing.
Let me know how it goes! It is normal that adolescent dogs have a period where they think the teeter is icky 🙂 so we will work her through it 🙂
Tracy
Hi! These are looking really good!
>> She’s great with a wing.
Agreed! And she is perhaps a little bored with just the wing LOL! Since the wing stuff looked strong on both sides, my only suggestion on those is to be a bit wilder on the strike exits – get excited and run faster to ger her to dig in and chase you out of it. You can take off and run and say strike and make silly noises, whatever she likes that can help her want to chase you, so that the wrapping gets super fun because it is a chase game and not a game where she stops 🙂 (Yes, I realize it might be 108 degrees so just do a little, here and there. 🙂
>>So, I think she is trying to figure out jumping organization. The markers are at 5, 10, 15 and 20 ft. Bar at 12 in on left turns and 12 and a few at 16 on right turns. Ultimately she will jump 20 in.>>
Yes, she is doing well on the jumping. Still sorting organization but I think she is in “working” memory where she has to think about it rather than “procedural” memory where it is 2nd nature. But, it will be wired in soon! The wraps are good when you are standing still facing the wing. Note how they are instantly improved by adding a bit of handling in the form of rotation and countermotion, at :45 and 1:35! Yay!
>>I wasn’t sure what you meant by the outside hand. Did I do it correctly minus the swoosh towards the jump that she doesn’t need?
Yes, that is one way to do it – basically you are rotated and the exit hand is placed right in front of the bar. You added a countermotion element by running the other direction, which she did great with 🙂 I didn’t really see a swoosh! And her turns looked really good: we want powerful bends and not slow bends, and we were getting the powerful bends here.
>>If I use the Cato board how far in front of the jump would I put it? Also, I’d then just go back down the line so I’m not having her turn and burn over it?>>
It has to be a Cato plank (the narrow one) so she has to get into a tight sit. The Cato board is too big 🙂 The plank would be about 10-12 inches form the bar (varies for each dog, so you can experiment with it). And correct, you would not want to do a tight turn and burn, so a looser variation of that turn would work.
>>I might be brave enough to film the FC with a beverage after Pilates tonight. But, I’d hate to spill my cocktail!
Start with something low value, like water LOL!!! Protect the cocktail!!!!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
These are also looking great!!!>>I didn’t set him up well for the first rep but he did awesome the rest of the time
yes, on that first sequence and on the others, you can center him more on the bar of #1. What I mean but that is that he should be facing the center of the bar but on a slice so he can see 2 clearly and see you by looking at the uprights more than going around the first one. That would be moving him over about 2 feet to the right side of the screen here 🙂
He read the 2nd rep really well, nice job with the blind and ending line!!! And the throwback rep looked great – my only suggestion is to lead out closer to 3 but you already noted that 🙂 His stays are looking great too – I love how he sassed you a bit but he also gets a gold star for ignoring the horse.
And when you put it all together at the end? Terrific! He was responsive and tight on the blind, and super fast on all the lines. No problems finding the straight line at all, even with the reward hitting the wing 🙂
Great job!!!
TracyHi there!
He did really well with these and you were very clever to have both sides set up so you can switch directions easily 🙂 You had really strong upper body position and connection on all of these, so he was able to find the serp lines very well 🙂 On the tunnel-jump-jump reps, I think you can tighten the jump line a little bit.
>> I think st the end I had tried to straighten the angle of the jumps a little too much for what I was asking and he had too much speed coming in. So we had a couple failures and I decided to stop there for the evening.>>
My video might be wonky, but I only saw one question from him, which was at 1:05 – this might be the only spot where having the extra jumps set up did not help because he took one of the extras before coming into the serp line. I think that was more about the angle he was coming into it from – taking the additional jump after the tunnel set up a zig zag line for the serp so he ran past the last jump. Taking out the additional jump after the tunnel and the FC into the serp line will smooth it all out. Let me know if there were other errors I missed?
Great job!
TracyHi! This sounds good! We want to be as gradual as possible, to help maintain the fabulousness we are seeing here 🙂
TracyHi!
Hope she is feeling better!
>>Any advice on getting her to commit to the landing side blind.
Do you mean after the tunnel? As soon as she approaches the tunnel, call her then do the blind so when she exits, you are already passing the jump and looking at her over the new shoulder.
Or do you mean on the 1-2-3 opening? That is a matter of getting more lateral distance, so running up that line further from it but on a parallel line will help (without the bind, for now) and throw lots of rewards to the landing side 🙂
TracyHi!
I am glad you liked these 🙂 The distance skills are cropping up everywhere, not just NADAC anymore 🙂A couple of general ideas for you:
because she is quick to let you know when she is BIG MAD by leaving to chase shadows, be sure to reward all the things in handling very quickly, without letting on that there was an error (errors in sequences are either handling errors or a reflection of stuff we haven’t trained, so basically all human error :))
The two options are to either do an immediate reset cookie like at 1:32, or don’t stop at all – keep going, get her back on the line to the next jump and reward as if it went entirely according to plan 🙂And, live by the 2 failure rule. If she fails twice in a session? Make it easier, often by increasing connection or motion, or by moving the obstacle in closer when working distance.
On seq 1, by starting too far from the #1 wing, you ended up too decelerated for now. Starting closer to the wing totally helped because you can set the line in motion. When you had the motion, it was all very easy and she nailed it. Good job adding the full sequence! My only suggestion is to either do the spin at 5 sooner (decelerating as she is over 4 so you can start it when she lands) or just decel, send and go – not spin. The spin was a little late so she was wide. She found the line to the tunnel really well, even with massive distance. YAY!!
Seq 2: as you noted in the video – yes, more connection helped with the BC before the tunnel (arm back, looking her directly in the eyes like you did at 3:25). And count the failures – there were 4 failures and she was getting BIG MAD which is not a state we want her in 🙂 After 1 error with a blind exit, ramping the connection up will usually fix it immediately.
The RC on the tunnel entry looked good! She looked less comfy with it but it will be useful! So many dogs have trouble with that but it looks like she turned correctly each time. SUPER!
Seq 3 – She also did well with the jump-tunnel discrimination of going past the tunnel! In the early stages, you can be pushier with the out by driving in a little more and even use the outside arm if needed. This will also help in new environment or if she is more stimulated. By the end of this sequence, she was doing a great job of taking the jump not the tunnel pretty much on just the verbal. YAY!
And she found the backside of the tunnel very easily – as you noted in the video, just remember to connect after the tunnel to get her back on the line at 4:26 and 4:39 – plan that in your walk through, by rehearsing your arm back and delivering the verbals directly to her cute little face 🙂
She had a couple of bars down towards the end – they were probably fatigue because it is a LOT of yardage for the dogs on these (not a lot of yardage for the humans LOL!) Ad that last sequence looked great!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Sorry for the delay as I drove home from Iowa – thanks for your patience!Nice work on this big meatball of a course!
Looking at the walk through – overall really strong! And yes, I will keep bugging you to run faster on the walk throughs haha! A couple of decision making things to consider:
– looking at the exit of the #2 tunnel: if you feel yourself putting in a spin on a tunnel to get a turn, be sure that the spin helps you get to the next place (better than a simple post turn would) so you can easily run the new direction. In this case, the spin delays you, so a send-and-go with the verbal is a better choice.And when considering blinds, be sure you will be far enough ahead. The 2 blinds you worked were before the weaves and after the12 tunnel as you went into the ending line: you were not like to be far enough ahead before the weaves, based on the line from 3 (having to handle there) so you ended up having to rear cross the weaves. So if you have a big handling element before a blind (like at 3), consider how far ahead you will be if you are planning a blind. The BC after the 12 tunnel was easy to get to because you could easily send to 10-11 and get way ahead.
On the run – the spin on tunnel 2 actually caused the off course at 4, as you tried to exit the spin and drive to position your motion there at :56 accidentally supported 4). 1:05 was better but I like that you worked on that section so that she learned the turn and didn’t need the spin – there was a little brake arm happening there and it helped! 3:13 was perfect! You added the spin back at 3:28 and 4:02 but you didn’t need it, she was doing really well with the verbal and you moving away to 3.
>>The hardest part was bypassing the jump on the way from 4 to 5 and again towards the end before the weaves>>
This is a tricky section! It should be built so it is a slight turn away from the line and easier to ignore 🙂 It looks like it was right on her path here (she didn’t need to switch away to get the off course) which made it harder 4-5 so you worked her bypass skills and she sorted it out nicely. I think it was easier on the 16-17-18 section but you were concerned about it by then (understandably!) so you pulled her off the line a bit. In fact, I think you might even need an ‘out’ arm there (17-18) so she does switch away to pick up 18 🙂
The weaves worked well to get the entry dog-on-right, so you can rear cross the entry to get the next jump on your left on both parts of the video – it was hard for her on the 2nd session so it is a good skill to work on.
The threadle wrap at 10 is a perfect spot for that skill – she is Oh-So-Close to nailing it! When you get to that section, you can walk through it to show it to her – that way you can keep moving but won’t have too much motion, making it easier to process.
At 1:53 you sent her to the wrong side of 13. No worries – when you have a handler blooper, either keep going like it didn’t happen or reward right away like it was totally correct. If you stop, she gets really frustrated and then it is harder to start her again. She has big opinions LOL!
The ending line from 5:27 – end looked really great! Be sure to drive her right to that last tunnel at 5:39 – you ran forward and away from it, so it was not on her line and she was correct to not flick away to it there.
Great job! Onwards to the live class video!
TracyHi!
The part 1 video is listed as ‘still processing’ which means that it is stuck in a youtube vortex somewhere. Darned youtube!
Part 2: this is the 14-18 section.
The first part looked good! If you get out of position for the weave entry, you can flip her away on the flat to get it (also note that 17 is backside not the front, which might be qhy it felt awkward there.
When you re-start her, you don’t need to start on a wrap – you can go back a jump or two and come into the rep with speed. At :24 and :45 and :50 – there was a bit too much motion pressure on the line so she took the backside (correctly, based on the motion) then slowed down because she was told she was wrong… so rather than start in a spot that might be awkward to show the line, start her a jump or two back so that you can set the line with more speed too, more like 1:14 but you can also start on the takeoff side of that jump. That created a smoother start and allowed you to show the whole line really well – it looked super!!!
Nice work! Let me know when the first video is re-posted.
Tracy
Hi! Sorry about the delay here and thanks for your patience as I did the big drive back from Iowa yesterday!
These courses are looking good!
>>“Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these competitors from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”
Ha! Was it raining? Hopefully not snowing LOL!
In the ‘environment changes behavior’ department: I couldn’t figure out why she was not quite as fast here as she had been previously – the answer might be the rain. She was being a bit more careful – but still committing beautifully. She was good on the 5-6-7 and 9-10-11 lines, super strong but not ON FIRE like she had been in the recent past. She really did like the chase elements like when you sent her to 8, ran like mad and did a BC (:55 and 1:08). She couldn’t get ahead of you there (because you had a big head start and were handling from ahead) but I felt like she was not being sticky and was committing to her lines without needing a lot of help. YAY! So a few more practices in the rai (I am sure Mother Nature will be happy to help) and then her speed/confidence in the rain will be the same as it is without the rain).
Course 2 – you had a pretty massive head start 2-3-4-5 and she dug in and passed you to 5. YES! That is great! Ideally, we would like her to pass you sooner so you can layer the 15 jump: to do that, though, you would have to hang out at 2 (or pick her up at the tunnel exit at 1) so you don’t have such a massive head start up the line. I think I prefer to meet her at the exit if 1 then drive close to 2 and 3, so she then gets on the line without seeing decel with you waiting at 2.
She did not pick up the bind at 1:45 (11-12, after the DW) mainly because you were really late 🙂 The BC started as she was lifting off for 11 and the reconnection happened as she was a stride from the a-frame at 1:46. Good girl, she was correct, gold star for driving lines. When that happens, try to just keep going or throw the ball so she doesn’t think she was wrong and slow down. Definitely don’t stop, even if you are giving her a cookie. She got the turn on the next rep and you were a tiny bit sooner… but she was also being more careful. So late her throw caution to the wind and if she gets on a big line and keeps going… go with it! Keep running in any direction possible, rather than stop her. Video review will tell you layer if she was ignoring you (unlikely) or if you were late (likely LOL!)
Good job with the ending lines and the backsides at 14-15-16-17-18-19. She was finding them really well and jumping the slices beautifully. Watching this, to keep maintaining the speed on the lines, I think you can balance the technical sections with an “either/or” approach. When you have a technical section like 14-16 (those backside slices are hard and require collection), balance it like a sandwich: easy fast line of all front sides before it (like 14, then to the 5 tunnel, then 6) then do the technical 14-16, then back to the front side elements with pure extension like 13 then 16-19. That way you can work the technical handling but also maintain the speeeeeeed and independence you have been building up. Feel free to freestyle speed lines to make it happen 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Thanks for your patience as I was finishing the crazy drive home! Your cracked lens here gives the videos a mystical feel LOL!
I think the walk through video is looking good, in terms of the shape of the course and the handling decisions. I would add 3 things to it, in this order of priority:
– more connection. Try to look for your invisible Chuck, the way you did at the tunnel exit at 1:06. The more you practice the connection, the more you will do it naturally – then it becomes habit and you won’t have think about it at all 🙂 That is when we produce the BEST handling 🙂
– after practicing connection at a walk like you did here… then go faster and faster. The goal is to be able to run faster than he needs you to run, while maintaining connection
– add your verbals 🙂 Your videographer did remind you, but I think connection and speed are higher priorities for now.
1st run – it looks like you changed your plan here on the opening – did he have trouble seeing the jump versus the tunnel on a previous run? He read 1-2 really well and just needed one more step for switch to 3 at :06.
Blooper video – he read 1-2 really well here too! He needs a bit of a name call or left verbal at 2 to pick up the front of 3 (and more connection).
Full run video –
Nice opening! Great weaves, layering and lateral distance! And you were able to show him the lines on the course really nicely!! Super! This definitely confirms that the next thing to add to your walk through is more connection – the only improvements here are to smooth out the parts where he looked at you or slowed down waiting for more info because connection was not that clear. You can see little head checks or slowing down at :14, :27, :33, :44, :54 – they are subtle but he was definitely asking for more info. So the added connection (with your arm back more so you can be looking at him more) will totally help. And yes, work the verbals in (mainly, sooner, especially before and after tunnels) but I think the connection is the top priority because the verbals seem to be more comfortable than the strong connection for now.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I am finally done with that long drive form Iowa! Thanks for you patience!!These sequences look really strong!
On the first run: Good RC at :07! Very clear!! She could see it coming really early because you were very close to 3, which made setting the RC line 3-4 easy for you both.
2nd run – for the either/or element, you can tip her off that it is not a RC sooner: you can be more laterally away from 3 at :22 so she already will know it is a right turn on 4. Being a few feet away from that 3 jump will tell her to not expect a RC diagonal. Being close to it helps tip her off that the RC is coming like at :06 and also at :34. So the positional cue relative to jump 3 is pretty important in the RC versus post turn cues.
And by being closer to 3, she didn’t quite know if is was a rear cross or post turn – If you watch her over 4 at :24, it looks like she goes to her left lead for a heartbeat then turned back to the tunnel. So being further from 3 will let you get her the info about the turn to the tunnel even sooner.
>>You’ll notice on the third run she went around the second jump>>
I think it was a combo of Keiko saying “same boring start” (she has BIG opinions if she thinks the start is stooooopid) and you were running parallel to it for a bit too long so she was not sure if she should come in for it.
Your line at :34 was a clear RC cue – nice!
>>When I walked the last sequences, I just couldn’t seem to get to the left (farther) side of #4 – it didn’t feel right>>
The backside on 4 was there more as an illustration of what we will get if we push across the line too early (we will get the backside wrap instead of the rear cross). So to get it intentionally, you would have to get past 3 before she landed and make a strong connection and run to where the wing and the bar meet, to push her off the front of the 4 jump. Or sometimes we do that accidentally, as you can see in my blooper demos 🙂 Or , you can do the BC to the backside like you did here; that worked really well!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
