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He was pretty amazing, adding the wing without batting an eyelash LOL! Definitely put it in on course to continue to build on this big success.
You’ll have a blast with Annette… maybe it will be cool and breezy out?
T
Good morning!!
I agree, tons of progress on these courses, you’re looking smooth and connected.
Carrying the pole was clever as long as you don’t impale yourself LOL! Maybe a weave pole instead?In trying to figure out why they were not fast or excited to be out there… could have been they were tired from a lot of recent course running, or could have been that you carrying the pole was just too weird. My dogs would have probably been concerned if I was running with a pole and at least 2 of them probably would not run.
Keltie ran but she was super careful. Even without the pole, she was careful and trying to opt out, so if they don’t want to run… don’t run. There is a certain level of soreness that the dogs might feel after course work like this (especially in the heat) and that might have been what you see when they slow down or opt out.
Since we want fast happy dogs, take a “less is more” approach – if you want to work a small piece like the tunnel threadle, do it at a much lower height or no bars, and just do that section and not the full course.To put it in perspective, the demo dog duties here are split between 3 (sometimes 4 or 5) dogs… and they only work big sequences or courses once a week. I might play around with short sequences or skills a couple of times a week, but the big course work is not every day or every other day, because it is too much physically and mentally for dogs and humans LOL!!! The dog PTs tell me any soreness will appear 24-48 hours later and will resolve in 72 hours.
So yes, build the standard course and walk it a whole bunch tomorrow… but don’t run it til the weekend so both dogs are chomping at the bit to get out there 🙂 or, do the jump-tunnel verbal game from package 2, that is easy and fun 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
She has really good entry understanding!! The garden gate worked well here, and yes, you can vary your position more and don’t stand still til she enters: you can move away as soon as she moves (put the gate back in if she struggles with the added motion).
One thing I notice is that she weaves with her head up. She enters with it down, then lifts it and weaves with her shoulders. It would great to get her head down, so you can try moving the MM further away (20 feet or so) so she has to run run run to it. That will require her head staying down to run, which might transfer to head down in the weaves. If not, we can try other things. 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, the live classes are also intended for everyone to try them at home and post them for feedback 🙂 They are partially handling games, partially dog training games.First sequence:
She got the idea of the backside nicely on Rep 1 and 2! You might have put her back in front of the other jump too soon, she had a lot of speed coming in on rep 3.
That flip away is hard skill! She was starting to get it when you were also turning your feet and using your arm – but you can eventually fade to foot rotation and just use your arm (which would happen as she is lifting off for the jump).
When putting it together – the ‘simple’ lines are actually kind of hard 🙂 Drivng her down to the tunnel helps (especially after all of those backsides) and then when she exits the tunnel – the trick is to make eye contact and not point forward. If you are pointing forward (like at 1:36, for example), your shoulders will be closed as she exits the tunnel meaning she will see your back (not your connection). So she was guessing about the jump because it was the most obvious thing. Getting outside the line of the jump helped but having your arm back and looking for her eyes will totally help too.
You mentioned she drops a lot of bars in extension, as she did here. On thing that will help is more eye contact and connection, with your arm locked back and extended away from you. That will keep your shoulders open to her and the line which will keep her from rushing to chase your line. Your shoulder and connection were closed forward at 2:20 and 3:28, so you had bars there. You were more open to her at 2:57 and it helped a lot!
Seq 1B:
Good job starting with rewarding with the countermotion on the wrap! This will come into play as you leave earlier:
I agree with your comment about wanting to leave earlier on the backside and not use as much upper body! It is a trained skill (trained similarly to how we trained in the Seq 2 backside game)To leave earlier, show the wing for the backside wrap and you can step to it or use a low arm, but don’t cross the arm in front of you to support her jumping line. Instead, as soon as she is past you, move forward but drop the reward in behind you (similar to what we do in seq 2). This will take out the upper body rotation and solidify the commitment
But be sure she sees the whole wing, at 2:41 you were blocking it so she went to the tunnelSeq 2:
She is taking the backside jump nicely! To get her to the correct side, yes, more connection but also do the blind sooner. You were helping her over the bar with your right arm til she was taking off, which cued her to land on your right. Ideally, you would Ideally, you would see her arriving at the backside entry wing and start the blind, so she sees your left side before she takes off. That will help her land on your left, and also requires the understanding to take the jump on the backside without extra help 🙂Seq 3: for her, I think the opening is a soft turn cue because the tight wrap cue would be too tight. She had a little trouble but I think she was looking at something or someone.
On the 3 wrap, I think a spin (rotated FC to BC) will get the collection into 4, the post turn cues a little too much extension for her.
To cue the 6 backside l: as she is over 5, make a big connection to her eyes, arm back and drive to the backside wing. I don’t think you were late on all of them, I think it was a matter of pointing forward ahead of her, which caused her to see your shoulders turn to take the front of the bar. On the last rep, you used a lot less arm and more connection and motion, and it worked nicely!!Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! It looks like you had a blast in Ohio! I can see why the heat and humidity would be really hard, adding in being tired from the adventures!
This was great fun to watch – he was on fire! He has come a long way with his weave skills since I last saw him weave! Was this the first time he saw a wing there? He figured it out immediately and got a whole lot of great entries while you were moving away. You can totally stick a wing on the weaves on a bigger training course to help him out!
He had a miss but it was a hard entry and that might have been caused by Callie coming in to join the party. She got the entry LOL!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! These are looking strong!
She was such a good girl on the wobble board – she knew it was backing up onto it so she didn’t want to get off it LOL! I see what you mean about the sideways backing up. Do you have an x-pen? You can put the wobble board in an x-pen and wrangle the sides so form guides for her, that can help! She seems confident with it so you can put it on a floor that makes more sound to simulate the teeter noise.
One step send – you were VERY connected here, which is more important than anything else! Yes, you can give a clearer step but she knew where to go and was focused, so I score it a win 🙂 You can carry the toy in your hand instead of your armpit, she got a little distracted when you reached for it but I don’t think she will be distracted if you carry in the opposite hand.
It is pretty common for young dogs to run past the tunnel (or run on top of it LOL!) or run into it sideways like she did LOL! She will sort all that out when she gets more experience with the tunnel in a sequence, and rewards after the tunnel. She was offering the jumps really well! When you are throwing rewards in grass, you can try big chunks of cheese so it is visible, or a lotus ball so she doesn’t search for crumbs 🙂 Then you can add speed: if you can run through the pinwheel and she will commit, then you can add the deceleration into the wraps and she will be able to collect before takeoff to set up a tight turn.
Countermotion – The single wings were hard for her, so you can try to step directly back more than sideways on the single wing reps. She did MUCH better when you added more motion by asking her to do the wing wrap before the countermotion send! So definitely keep trying the countermotion on one wing at a time but I think she is going to be really good at this 🙂
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I totally see what you are saying!
A couple of ideas for you!
I think with the added speed, he needs more connection… but with added speed, it is really hard to give perfect connection. So, we can shift the emphasis away from perfect handling and into training: the lazy game at a run! This is what you did on the very last rep and it looked great. One thing I would add to it is spreading out the reinforcement more, meaning: toss it in different spots each time to reward, especially to the landing side of the jump after the tunnel because that is where he seems to have the most trouble (especially to the left.And for the blinds – you were trying to target him on the new side after the blind with your arm, but the magic is in the connection. So this game will help you be able to connect better on the exit of blinds and getting your arms a bit more out of the way 🙂
Reward Across Body Explanation:
You can totally add the next game (straight lines 4 ways) because you will have plenty of time to work the same skills, but in a different context.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> We are the high arm bandits 🤣🤣
It is a trend in both this class and the CAMP class. I am sensing games and prizes for everyone this summer to work on low arms 🙂
“ you had a bit too much shoulder turn on the right and not enough connection (a high arm will block the connection) into the send at 1:09. ”
Sorry for any confusion! On that send, if you watch it in slow motion: you were a little too far ahead and ending up rotating parallel to the middle jump. That broke connection because he could no longer see your face (your shoulders were ‘closed’). This points the shoulders and chest past the jump (the dogs read shoulders and chest)
On the send, a better use of shoulders would be to have your dog side arm back and your eyes on his eyes, stepping towards the takeoff spot and giving a low arm “swoosh” to point him to it – which in this case would point your shoulders and chest to the takeoff spot of the jump, and that is where he will go.Because the dogs read the line of your shoulders, we tend to use connection and a low arm to line up our shoulders correctly.
>> Do you mean that keeping my arm high at times blocks the connection between dogs eyes and my eyes?
Yes – it blocks the eye contact and turns your shoulder too far forward or away from the line, while a low arm keeps your shoulders ‘open’ to the line meaning he can see your whole chest.
Let me know if that makes better sense!
TracyHi!
The first several layering reps looked great! The questions are really if we can reliably cue the difference between the tunnel and jump.
For the balance rep, I think it comes down to mainly the difference between the left and the jump or go verbals, or the jump versus tunnel verbals, rather than physical cues (because as you noted the physical cues are all very similar LOL! )
To start getting better response on verbals only, dial back the motion so you are walking and delivering the verbals – body language being identical for both, and the verbals making the difference. I think when you add more speed back, the brake arm will help her as it did here, but having stronger verbals will help even more.>> with. I’m struggling with really knowing what helps her the most with the left/rights. Whether it is my body position further back, shoulders, decel/direction change, verbals, feet, or timing.>>
I don’t think handling will be the answer, because with these discriminations and layering, the handling is all very similar looking (because you don’t want to decel or rotate or spin or anything – the brake arm is good but the rest would leave you too far behind).
Have you tried the game where you just sit and work on the jump versus tunnel verbal? That will TOTALLY help her learn the difference between the two, and it might work out better for her to hear obstacle names rather than directionals?
Nice work here! We will keep experimenting with what will help her process the difference between the verbals :) Tracy
Hi!
High arms are something we all battle. I think this summer we should have the class play a game that involves keeping arms low! I will come up with some prizes 🙂 Stay tuned!
T
Hi!
>> Tracy, so better than I thought 🙂
Yes! 😁
>> Let’s see what I can come up and feel comfortable with.
Trying running around outside without him, saying your verbals with the body cues that match (like acceleration or decel). The forward verbals like corre corre should be longer and louder, with the vowels emphasized: COOOOOORRE COOOOORRE and TUUUUUNNEL and GOOOOOOOOO and BAAAACK. The wrap verbals can be very quiet and choppy and emphasize the consonants: iziziziz The soft turns can more ‘conversational’ and medium volume, medium length, also emphasizing vowels: Leeehft or riiiight.
>>Also, I wanted to discuss with you the turn commands, I have noticed that even when there is a soft turn he responds better when I give him a verbal, maybe I can “add” another verbal, for example I am thinking for a soft turn I can say left (or right) and for a harder turn say “lefty” (or righty). Thoughts?>>
I think lefty and righty will be too similar to left and right for behaviors that are different – he will either have to wait to see more physical cues, or he will make a decision that might be wrong. We want the dogs to respond to the first part of the cue as soon as they hear the “le” of left and if there are too possible behaviors, it could create questions.
So the first step is to define what behavior each turn should be. For example:Go = straight
Wrap = tight collection, a “u” shape turn on the jumpSo now for your ‘soft’ turns: are left/right the shape of the letter “L”, a 90-degree turn?
So the other verbal is a somewhere between the straight GO and the 90 degree left? I just say jump for that because I don’t want to add more verbals, I have 4 million already LOL!!Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>but I tried to send to the tunnel without continuing to move, and Keiko decided to take the far end. I think my verbals were mostly on time,
Yes – verbals were good but her question was on the physical cue: you were using your right arm a lot to cue it but as you used your right arm and looked ahead, the rest of your body (shoulders and feet especially) turned to the other end of the tunnel (freeze the video at :12 and you can see it). On the 2nd run, you still had your right arm up but you moved forward more and converged towards the tunnel entry, so she took it.
>> checked for my visual cue, and took the correct one. Maybe I’ve done too much with odd tunnel approaches? Do you see something I’m doing that’s giving her the wrong cue, >>
Yes, she looked back to see if she was reading you correctly – and she was, so she carried on. Good girl!
So next time, try not to point forward with the dog side arm out ahead like that. Either keep moving, or, use a lower arm with more connection to her eyes because that will send her to the correct end of the tunnel.
That will allow you to get further up the next line, to start the deceleration for the wrap at 9 sooner – you can start it as she lands from 8 so you can rotate before takeoff.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyLordy, I am needing a lot more coffee today! Sorry! Here it is:
Good morning!
This is a super useful setup! Since it will still be setup when you go back, you can work on some big fast lines on this one with some harder stuff thrown in here and there.
On the video:You did a FC between 1 and 2and a BC 4-5:
Yo can see if he will line up on an angle at 1 so yo can serp it to 2. And trust him more on the BC: as soon as he lands from 3 and turns towards 4, do the blind and keep running 🙂 I think you were waiting for him to commit to 4 so ended up doing the blind at takeoff of 4. I think you can trust him more and let him find it based on your motion as you do the blind.This setup has all sorts of good variations for a “this or that” approach:
After the BC 4-5, you can drive him straight to the tunnel out in the corner, or turn to the weaves, or practice the “soft” right turn to the jump that you did here, or cue a wrap! That will challenge you to change your cues when before he takes off for 4 – so when he lands from 4, he knows what to do at 5 🙂You can also put the blind cross between 3-4, and then when he is on your left for 4, drive him to the tunnel on the right side of the screen – then pick him up on your left to drive the line to the tunnel near the weaves. Wheee! This will get him used to bigger, fast lines like he will see in trials.
Nice work here! Let me know if my sequence ideas make sense :) Tracy
Good morning!
>> Am I not giving her enuf connectionn on those starting wraps to get her into the tunnel?
Correct! Not enough connection there or moving away too quickly or both 🙂 I think the errors here were because you were rushing, so the details of the cues were getting lost a you were trying to run fast. So for the wrap before the tunnel, give a strong step to it and then as she exits, a strong eye contact and a couple of steps to the tunnel to set the line. You will see her turn and start heading to this tunnel: that is when you can leave to run up the next line.
Something similar was happening on the wing after the jump – you were trying to be very quick, so connection was breaking (your arm and eyes were looking forward while she was behind you) or you were stopping and turning too quickly. So as she is approaching the jump after the tunnel, make a big connection (keeping your dog side arm back and low so she can see your eyes and you can see her eyes). Then, decelerate but don’t turn yet – she needs to be past you and looking at the wing for now, before you can turn and run. In a nutshell – slow yourself down, you don’t need to run as fast 🙂
>> On Clip # 5, Should I begin the cues for the wrap (sic sic sic) out of the tunnel before she goes over the #2 jump on the way to the #1 wrap jump?>>
No, I think if you begin a wrap verbal cue that early, she might think you want a wrap on the jump or tunnel exit. I think the timing of your verbals were fine here, it was the physical cues that were moving too quickly and pulling her off. So keep the same timing of the verbals and slow down the physical cues, so she can commit.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
