[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! So much good work here! A huge percentage of it was really lovely! I have ideas to help get it a little smoother in spots and iron out the sections where he had questions:

On the first video, both runs were really lovely, he is finding his lines well and is FAST!!
Sequence 1: Nice job! He found the line easily. You can be earlier with your tunnel exit cue, telling him and go and over all before he enters.

Seq 2: Also really strong! And same small details as on the 2nd sequence – call his name before he goes in the tunnel, so he exits turned. He exited wide here and found you after he exited.

Seq 3: I liked the timing of the tunnel cue, he was in the WOO over 2 and you cued it. Perfect! You can all him before he enters the tunnel here too, to get the good turn on the exit. That sets up the whole next line: when he exits the tunnel, you can be turning and showing 4, as you continue to turn so you are turning and showing 5 before he takes off (he was a little long in his jumping over 4 and turned on landing, because you were facing straight when he was taking off (being on landing side caused you to have to face straight longer, so this is a good spot to get to takeoff side).
Then, the tunnel verbal was good timing to start, but you got quiet (only said it once) and turned and ran the other way, so he was totally correct to follow the physical cue there. In that moment, just keep going as if was correct so he doesn’t stop and ask questions 🙂 then reward him at the end.
The 2nd run was much clearer throughout! You turned sooner for the 4-5 line and definitely had stronger cues to the 7 tunnel. Nice!!! He read it with no problem.

Seq 4:

NIce opening line! As he lands from 3, start your check check cue and start turning your shoulders – you had a lot of forward motion and your over cue, so he went straight over 4 (the check check happened after he landed).
He turned nicely on the wrap at 9 – you can probably start the decel sooner (as he is jumping 8) and also give a lot more connection on the exit with your arm back and making eye contact as you run forward – he had a nice collection but then drifted wide on landing as he came around the wing, because all he could see was your back so he waited to see which jump was next.
A question about verbals… at 4-5 you used check check check an at 9 for the wrap, you also used checkcheckcheck. The same verbal for 2 different behaviors will ultimately cause him to go wide and wait for handling info. I recommend a different verbal for that soft turn 4-5 (such as ‘left’ or his name) and save the checkcheckcheck for the wraps.

Standard 2: this went well, you and Carol made good choices in how to fit it in and make it flow. And his weave entry – WOW!!
The whole opening looked great – to help get more speed and flow through the 360 wraps, try to send him to the wrap and then move forward (rather than turn with him) but look at the landing spot for now (and toss a reward past the landing spot). The more he gets used to you moving through like that, the more he will be able to power through them with commitment and speed.

As he is weaving, try to start the FC before he exits (it is good weave practice to reward him to be able to finish the weaves as you do a cross and leave). That will help you get the FC wrap on the next jump sooner & tighter – as he exits the weaves, start to decel and give your check check cue (the over cue sends him too long and makes the checkcheckcheck late). Then as he passes you and before he takes off, rotate and move the new direction.

Great job on the send and leave on the jump before the dog walk! On the ending line after the dog walk: his tunnel sends look great, so you can definitely use that BC instead of the FC on the next line: send to the tunnel and replace the FC you did with a BC like you did on the re-start. The FC rotation makes it hard to then turn him to the backside – the motion caused him to go straight. With a BC there instead, you will have time to finish it and move over to cue him to the backside.

On the 2nd run – the rotation on the backside wrap pushed him to a-frame, so we can keep working on you moving forward through there and not needing to turn your shoulders to feet to the jump. On the re-start, you turned left and it helped him! He dropped the bar on the circle wrap after the teeter, so we can definitely add games to help him out! I have some ideas that I can post when I get him tomorrow 🙂

Another great weave entry! And, you used more lateral distance and you turned a shade sooner before he exited, and gave the checkcheckcheck cue rather than over for the next jump, all of which helped set up a better line and another good send and go to the DW.

On the ending line, you were more prepared to get him to the backside after the FC and moved more laterally sooner but I still think the BC there will make your job a lot easier through there to get it the first time 🙂 The rest looked really good! (There was something one the ground there at the end as you noted, but he came back to focus very quickly).

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Lots of great work here!

>> LOL I love the water idea! Though I don’t know if I could concentrate on the water bottle and the course at the same time. :).

It is fun! I will post some links to it later this week so people can noodle around with it – it is great fo helping to multi-task connection, arm position, and remembering the course 🙂

>>Yeah, I figure he will get faster as he gets older and has more confidence. :D.

Faster, yes, but also easier because he will be able to read cues sooner and understand the flow of the course, which helps us humans because we don’t need to be as perfect. Then it will be much easier to get the first run, best run theme solidly in place 🙂

On the standard course, looking at the 2 videos:
Opening:
That opening line to the teeter is a definite keep moving moment. On the first run, you helped a bit too long at 1-2, so he got ahead for 3 and ended up wrapping on the backside. Ideally, you can set him up on more of a slice at 1, so he is facing 2 – then you can lead out further. Once you have released him – upper body (arms, shoulders, eyes and mouth :)) handle the line and feets just keep moving to the exit wing of 4. That way you can get the 3 backside and slice the 4 jump to his left to exit facing the teeter .

Excellent adjustment on the 2nd run, to keep moving and you got much further across the line! YAY!! Very nice! The blind was actually early there, for that type of turn 🙂 On the backside blinds with the wrap exits (German turn), you will want to be passing the wing on the exit before you do the blind, to get the best turn. You will actually be doing the blind on the takeoff side of the jump, after running past the landing side. If you do it while you are still on landing side, he will think you want the weaves like he did here, because that is how the line was set.

The line across the back looked great! Wheeee! So fast! You can give the exit cues for the 7 tunnel sooner, so he exits straight to the DW (he had a little zigzag there and needed your help getting on the DW). You said walk it when he was already in, so you can try saying go go go and then walk it…. all before he enters 🙂 The go between 6 and 7 will help get the straight tunnel exit, then the walk it before he enters the tunnel should affirm the straight exit and tell him which obstacle to look for too. He was straighter on the 2nd run, but that is probably because he knew where the line was from the first run.

For the dog walk criteria – if we can get him to go do the end of the DW without you, you will have more flexibility to run to where you need to be and not slow down with him. If you originally trained with a target, you can totally put it back in here and teach him to run the DW more independently to help with the handling.

MIdcourse – that 10-11-12 line is a doozy, so much speed into a tunnel discrimination!

Remember to reward him after off courses if you are going to stop and restart – he is an honest little dude and when he goes off course, it is because you sent him there 🙂 After the backside at 9, try to run up the line with a low arm – by pointing sideways at the jump at :30, your shoulders and chest turned straight so he almost didn’t take it because he definitely reads shoulders and motion more than arms/hands. Then he went back out and got it, but the motion then stayed straight and you cued the tunnel while he was straight, so off he went. Good boy! Same thing happened on the second run – you tried to decel more to get him turn, but that pulled him off the jump so then when you put him back on it, he ended up going straight to the tunnel according to your motion and verbal (I think you were saying tunnel there).

>> I found 9-10-11-12 exceptionally difficult. He locked onto the wrong end of the tunnel so early I didn’t know how to cue the left end of the tunnel. After we ran the full course, I tried some decel, but he was already locked onto the right end. I can post that video too. He’s sooo far ahead of me I don’t know the best way to handle that.>>

The tunnel discrimination actually begins as he is jumping 10 – as you hustle up the line and he is jumping 10, you start to cue a turn on 11 – it can be decel, but ideally it is verbal only so you don’t get caught decelerating that far from the rest of the line. Then, after you see him approaching 11 and turning, you would then go to a tunnel discrimination cue. This can vary, of course, depending on each individual dog, but generally the most effective ones are when the handler turns her upper body to the dog, and shows the outside arm (threadle arm), and uses a distinct “other side of tunnel” cue – and definitely don’t say tunnel, because that means to stay on the line he is on. I use a separate word for the tunnel discrims and it really helps! Ideally, you would not turn your feet towards him on the threadle but you might find it useful to do so in the early stages of training it. It is a good sequence to isolate in your hard and work on!

His running a-frame looked good!

>> I really don’t know the best way to handle that

Since I am just getting to know him – have you trained a threadle cue (arm and verbal to bring him to the other side of the jump)? If so, we can use it there. That would be the best (and easiest :)) way to handle it, but it is a trained cue. If not, we can start training it and in the meantime, we can do crosses (like a double blind) to get it done. Also reward him in that section as you work it – he gets frustrated and barks at you, so we want to keep him at a high rate of reinforcement as you work out handling.

On the 2nd run – Doing it as a push to a blind is hard in this scenario but you stayed in motion and got there! I am sending you a big high five!!!! Throughout the summer, we will keep working on more backside independence so you can send and leave, rather than having to help him over the bar like at :50, which will smooth out the line to the weaves.

On that ending line – the flip to his left on 19 looked great! Then, you will get a better line if you keep him on your right. You added a FC, which is late no matter as you do it and pulled him off the ending line because the FC would have to start before you finished the RC flip, which is impossible in terms of physics LOL! So, you can RC and then run to the end with him on your right.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Great job on this training session, I think you totally kept him happy and motivated!

The opening line looked really smooth! Doing a FC between 1-2 made it harder for you to get to the BC 2-3, so yo can try setting him up on more of a slice at 1 to then moving into 1-2 dog on left, which allows the BC to begin sooner with less rotation before it. Great job with the verbal on the turn before the teeter! He read it nicely 🙂

The speed line across the back was lovely, he seemed to enjoy that LOL! And you started the push to the backside after the DW a lot sooner here, and he was both able to hit the DW and get the push! Yay! He did look a little surprised, so it is probably an experience thing – the more he gets used to that type of line, the less he will look at you like you are crazy LOL!

He considered going to the off course tunnel at :30 – even though you were pulling away laterally and using some verbals, he read the motion as forward motion. It sounds like you said come as he was taking 10, but it didn’t seem to get his attention to override the motion, so yo had to keep pulling away and using a stronger verbal. Two things to try in these scenarios where it is an extension line to a tunnel discrimination: a direction as he exits 10, so he turns on 11 (it can be a collection verbal like a “left” cue if you have one, if not, we can train one pretty easily).That will set up the turn on 11 so as he approaches 11, you can rotate your upper body towards him for the threadle arm (rather than arm) to get the tunnel discrimination at 12. Pulling away from the line did get the 12 tunnel here but let you further from the line than you would want to be here.

Working that piece at the very end – he was more powerful going to the backside after the dog walk, more sure of himself – yay! But…. the RDW hit was higher. So if you trained with some type of prop or aid for the RDW like a mat, you can put it back in to help remind him to hit even when you are behind and cueing a turn.

At 1:44 you didn’t say anything over 10 and stayed straight up the line, with the tunnel discrimination cue starting at liftoff to 11… so he did not turn. When you were up at a 11 and able to decel, he got it nicely but you won’t always be up there is time to decel – he is flying! So, taking the timing all back one WOO – that directional at 10 to get attention on a turn at 11 will help, so then when he is approaching 11 he is turning and then it is easier to get the turn to the tunnel at 12.

Hooray for the threadle! He did a great job there, in the heat of the moment! Handling was really good – you kept moving up the straight line, no pulling away or rotating, and started the verbal while he was on the a-frame. You did a bit of an arm cue too, but you didn’t have time to do a big arm cue because you were hustling 🙂 And yes, the spin was because he probably picked up the praise in his left ear, but then he sorted out the weave entry nicely too!

Great commitment on the wrap jump on the ending line – great job starting your deceleration as he was lifting for 19, he totally read the line there! One thing to play with as he continues to mature and develop: you used a high, moving send arm to cue the wrap as you rotated at :50. He did well! It would be interesting to see if you use a low arm with less movement to see if he can collect and tighten that turn more – the arm would be about nose high to him (or a little higher, maybe waist level for you) and would indicate the takeoff spot rather than the landing spot. We can try to get the different collections then time then, to see which creates the faster line 🙂

You worked the wrap to his left at the end – I think that the exit line for the left wrap is really great but turn away to get the left wrap might not be faster than slicing into the wrap to his right? Do you know if he is lefty or righty? For example – with two of my dogs, that wrap to the right would be faster because they are righty and can power through it ever-so-slightly better than to the left. And for one of my dogs, he is a little better turning to his left, so that turn away to the left wrap would be very easy for him, and ultimately faster.
You can try both and time it! And you can also see if you can leave him in the poles to do a BC between 17-18 to get a sweeter line to the wrap to the left. At some point this summer, we will be timing all the options to truly know what it better.

He was so funny at the end of the full run – he didn’t want the toy til you engaged with it with him, and you were like “I’ll be there in a minute” LOL!

Lovely work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

One thing you can do with her to get more excitement is to do tricks and chase-da-momma games before starting the sequences,so you can get her pumped up more. And, when running…. call her name a lot less 🙂 You are trying to get her pumped up by talking to her, but when you call her, she is not sure if she is supposed to go to the line or look at you. So try to run, and use obstacle names, directionals, and a little praise, but not her name unless you need her to turn or need her attention strongly on you.

Then, for the reward, rather than tossing so she stops, tie it to a leash or something longer so you can keep running and she can chase it. Does she like balls or frisbees?

One more idea to get her pumped up – I think dogs like variety versus doing the same sequence several times. So if she gets it right once on each side, move to the next one. That will keep things spicy! If there is something you want to change or do differently, you can go back to that sequence later.

Video 1 – on the FCs, you can start the decel and the timing for the wrap sooner (as she lands from the middle jump) so that you are rotating before she takes off for the wrap. rather than facing forward. She can turn on a dime, which is great! So you can cue it one step sooner by decelerating sooner, which should be perfect.

Video 2 – the blinds are looking good! I think at :17 is a pot where the name calls caused a blooper – you were calling her all the way through there and pulled her off the jump. Compare that to the first one, and also at :45, where you didn’t call her and it sounds like you said jump, and she was great! I think the obstacle names and jumps verbals are great for the lines, and the name calls are more useful for just the exit of the blind before you give the tunnel cue.

Video 3 – rear crosses are going well! Great job with your directionals here! And you consistently showed the left turn rear cross line. The right rear cross angle is harder, so you set it more clearly by decelerating at the pinwheel jump, letting her catch up and turn, then driving to the center of the bar of the RC jump. You were a tiny bit ahead on the line, which brings you to the outside of the RC jump, so the RCs were a little harder to show her.

Great job! Have fun practicing with your Viszla friend!

Tracy

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Tracy Sklenar.

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The BCs aare going really well! On the right turns, she had an easy time with the line and commitment, and your timing on the blind was really good – look at :43m for example, where she was still a stride from takeoff and you had already completed the blind and you were on a great line to the tunnel. Yay!

She also found the line nicely to the right in the 2nd half of the sequence, she was pretty balanced here! Yes, I see what you mean about the human version of the side preference! You had a spin but you had a good line of motion to the end of the tunnel you wanted. On the next rep, watching it in slow motion, I think she was correct there too, to continue straight:
Timing of starting the blind was really good at 1:15. Connection was good (not as good as the other side, but good enough that she turned her head to you over the bar). As she was considering the turn, you turned your head forward again a 1:16 then closed your shoulder forward at 1:17 – so from her perspective behind you, it looked like a BC back to your right, so she changed her line back to the original end of the tunnel. Also, your line of motion was relatively straight to the center of the tunnel, even though you were trying to get her on your right – so that helped support the wrong line. She sees everything! Scrolling back to :43, your connection and line of motion were all towards the tunnel entry you wanted – so she definitely reads all the subtle cues 🙂

Your connection was much better at 1:32 and 1:46, but your line of motion was also to the center of the tunnel at 1:32 and almost to the wrong end of the tune at 1:46, so be sure that your motion takes you towards the tunnel entry you want. I think what is happening is that as you make connection, it is drawing your footwork sideways down the line to the tunnel – try to make that connection as you run forward to the tunnel entry like you did when she was on your line and when you did the spin 🙂

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

He most definitely liked the turkey! It was very high value!

Because it took almost two minutes to get his engagement, I think we can do more before that leash even comes off.

As he exited the house and before you took him over to jump 1, do tricks or chase games to help get his focus on you, while he is still on leash. That will help to get rid of that initial burst of disengagement. And, in that first moment where you take off the leash, reward him right away for not leaving before you do anything else. Then do a couple more tricks and chase games before starting the sequence.

Once he got rolling on the sequences, he was much more engaged because running + turkey = great fun for him LOL!! So to get more engagement right away, you can do a trick, then run a few steps, and then reward him. At the start, you were bending over him and being stationary, so I think if we get you standing up and moving so he can chase you and the turkey, you’ll find he gets more engaged, more quickly. For the engagement, you can feed him from your hand (because it is about being near you). For the sequences, he really liked the ball being thrown far away. He did well on the sequences- it is all easier to connect and run when we have engagement 🙂 And I think adding the lotus ball on a toy will help even more, because it has chasing AND being near you, both of which are great 🙂

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hello and welcome, great to see you and the Golden Crew here!!!! Onwards to the WOO!!
Have fun 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!

Wow, I cannot believe it took that long! Crazy! I figured you got busy with a trial and didn’t post it. I have a similar issue when my videos are high resolution and I load them at home with my poopy internet connection.

Opening line: – I really loved how you handled the opening – tight fast lines without having to waste energy on running you didn’t need to do and also setting up a great position for 7-8-9! It was gorgeous on the 2nd run too!

To chop off a tick of time, on the ‘come’ for the 7-8 tunnel discrim moment, try to do it more as a “cometunnel” so he can go right back out to the tunnel, rather than check in with you before being sent back out when you did more of a “come…. tunnel” at :22. You sent him back sooner at :44, and I think you can send him even sooner and really trust his understanding to get it super fast and smooth.
On the 2nd rep at 1:34 and on the next rep at 2:23, he remembered that the ‘come’ predicted the tunnel, so he sent himself to the tunnel – that is what the line should look like, ideally, so you will want to give him the release to the tunnel nice and early to create that.

MIdcourse:
At :26, for the 10-11-12 line, I was going to say you were facing forward for too long, but that was where you forgot the course LOL!

As you went through there the 2nd time: Turn sooner for the turn at 9, so he can adjust before takeoff and keep the bar up – you called and turned while he was jumping. I think the better timing will be seeing him exit the tunnel, tell him to jump and turn your shoulders to 10 so he can adjust before takeoff.
If my memory is correct, Enzo has really good threadle understanding – so you don’t need to rotate towards him at :49 for 10-11. You can turn forward and keep moving, using the upper body and verbal.

On the 2nd and 3rd full runs in the middle here, you did a great job with your continued turning and earlier cues at 1:39, setting at really nice line 9-10-11!!!

To get a tighter line on the wrap at :13 at 1:45 – you were in great position, but he went wide because you faced the jump. Try facing him instead, so your feet are pointing more back to the tunnel- and see if he can commit with just a bit of a hand cue and maybe looking at landing, to get he best collection there. And, another thing that can help get better collection there is to drop your hand to the takeoff side of the bar and leave it there, with no motion to landing (left hand, in this case, because you are rotated). When the hand swung to landing at 2:33 and 2:58, he went wide even with you more rotated.

I liked the brake arm to get the soft turn 15-16 at :59! It was timely and he was collecting nicely! Keep the arm up as you continue through that turn, rather than release it an blast forward, because he tried to accelerate too and fell a bit. That will also help keep him in handler focus for the come tunnel 16-17. On the 2nd full run there, you added a bonus jump of doing 13 again, so he ended up on a different line. Bit then at 1:59 and 2:40 and 3:03, you did a great job holding the brake arm as you finished the turn on 15 and he was great there!

Then, when he commits to the tunnel 17, you can move up the line sooner to show the turn 18-19, and be more in the position for the wrap at the 20 backside.
Question – does he have a separate backside cue for a wrap or is push for both the wrap and the slice backside? If it is for both, adding another collection cue will help him know it is a wrap when you are behind him on a line, so he can jump super tight even as you move up the line.

On the last rep, your line/motion and timing of the cues on the closing line were really strong!!! You were moving up the line more to show the turn at 18, and as he was over 19, you were already cueing the backside at 20, so he had a great line to it. Well done with those timely cues!!

Great job here! How did the trial weekend go?

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! You probably didn’t do any balance reps because he was not just reading the MM as a threadle – he was like “WE GO TO MM!” on some of the reps LOL! So now that he is better with the Threadles, adding the balance reps will be great. Have fun with the full course!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> What, what? Get him faster?

Heck yes! And I figure he is going to go faster no matter what we do, so we will embrace it 🙂 He reminds me of my dog Export in a lot of ways, not just the fuzzy good looks 🙂 but also the speed and drive!

>>Lol he’s so fun.

Totally agree, he is a blast!!!

>>In reply… You said ..When you say his name on tight turns, is that for wraps. I use ‘check’ as a wrap cue. But I don’t always get the word out of my mouth. Lol. I use his name for like a hard turn towards me out of a tunnel or in a pinwheel or something.>>

One of the things we will focus on this summer is being able to get the right word out at the right time – this is best practiced by jogging through the sequence a few times without him, yelling the words 🙂

>>My instructor here in Utah also tells me I need need to stay in motion for him so that’s good to have more information about that. I try to but sometimes he’s so far ahead of me I feel like I need to slow down or almost stop in order to be where I need to be. So I definitely need to be aware of that.>>

We will look at that – it might be a strategy thing specific to medium and small dogs: we don’t always send and leave with them, because it might put us too far ahead. Sometimes we run the curve of the line for longer, so we can keep moving and stay ahead. Small/medium dog handling has some real differences from large dog handling!

>I do point too much. Sometimes my arms have minds of their own lol.

To teach my arms to behave, I ran with an open bottle of water in my hand for a while – that really helped me keep my arms from flinging around because I would spill water on my head LOL!

>>Thanks for the feedback! I will set this up again and make notes of your input. I am probably going to a friend’s house tomorrow who is also in this class and try the standard course.>>

I look forward to it! Have fun!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! This is great that you got to do this in a new place! Different footing, different environment: perfect for helping develop her agility career!

Seq 1:
Note how she jumps towards you on the first jump then back out on that first rep – you said the release and didn’t say anything else. So, try to release and immediately tell her to go go go tunnel to smooth out that line. On the second rep, you led out less and ran more, which helped! And also, she knew the sequence (smartie) so it was easier. The rest looked great!

Seq 2: she read the whoa cue perfectly for the tunnel exit on both reps here! Super! I notice she is relatively quiet as she is working here. At a trial, she might be, um, more talkative 🙂 so you can repeat the cue a few times to help her process is when she is in higher arousal.

On the 2nd rep – she dropped the bar on jump 1 at 1:09. That lead out and release was similar to the first rep – a slightly longer lead out and release while you were not moving fast and no go verbals, so she jumped in to you then back out, dropping the bar.

Seq 3: She had a few questions about the 4-5-6 pinwheel. The timing was late, with the first turn to tell her that she needed to turn over 4 beginning after she was already organizing for takeoff at 1:25 – that made the turn for 5 later too so she ticked the bar. Then you you decelerated over 6, so she looked at you and dropped the bar.

The next rep at 1:43 had a longer lead out but faster motion on the release, so she had a straight line over 1 and no questions. Yay!
The timing on the pinwheel was the same… but she knew the sequence (fast learner) so while she still had questions and looked at you over 6, she didn’t touch the bars.
So to get the timing on the first attempt, put the turn cues in the WOO 🙂 That window of opportunity for the turn at 4 begins when she exits tunnel 3 – look at her, use your right cues, and start turning your shoulders so she takes off for 4 already turning to her right. Then, as she is approaching 4, before liftoff, send to her 5 and turn to 6 (staying connected, of course 🙂 sends work better when we are connected!). Then as she approaches 5 – accelerate to the tunnel and start your go go go cue. That might feel wicked early but it will give her plenty of time to find the line and organize the jumping.

Seq 4:
You were very quiet in the opening, and she had questions 🙂 I didn’t really hear a GO cue before the tunnel or cues while she was in the tunnel or exiting t get on the line 2-3-4, so she was looking at you over 3. For the turn 4-5, you can start the shoulder turn one stride sooner – when she lands from 3. And, as you mentioned, remember to add more connection and verbals to keep her on the line to 5. She ended up coming in and looking at you, because the info was very quiet and not enough connection.
Th wrap on jump 9 went well! I bet you can start it one heartbeat sooner in that WOO – you started the decel and verbal when she landed, so she processed it one stride later. That produced a good turn. I bet you can start it while she is lifting off/in the air over 8, which means when she lands she already knows it is happening – that will get a great turn and allow you to rotate and run the new direction even sooner 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> . But outside I think I’ll just have to slow down and work on this engagement issue first.

Totally normal when moving a winter puppy to the great outdoors 🙂 All of my winter puppies had to learn engagement outdoors on a leash before I could do any fancy stuff 🙂

>> For the runaway, I actually had tried one of his favorite toys as a reward, but it was not enough. And maybe it would have been different if I had spent more time warming the thee brain as you suggest.

I think large chunks of delish meat and a brain warm up then a short session will do the trick. He loves his Zukes… indoors when the environment is not drawing his attention. So outdoors, for now? Go for the good stuff! And the brain warm up will be very helpful – there is a ton of science addressing states of arousal (google Yorkers-Dodson law if you want to geek out a bit) and the simplest thing to do is get him spun up a bit with tricks and high value food, then do a short session and be done before arousal changes.

>> Might mean I need to slow down in class a bit but in the end I really want an engaged dog that enjoys the sport, so taking this time now to ensure he’s feeling good about our sessions is important.

I don’t think you will need to slow down, because you will be able work the class games, using them as the framework to teach engagement. The key is that the actual handling stuff doesn’t have to be perfect – it just has to be fun and relatively clear 🙂 And we want both of you to feel great at the end of the session, and wanting to do more 🙂

Keep me posted!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Kim Collins is great! And I haven’t had a chance to look at the Dogs4Motion website but it comes HIGHLY recommended as the best one by one of the pickiest trainers I know 🙂 I got a peek at AnnaLee Sanders website last night, and it is just spectacular! And, Anna doesn’t use a Border Collie in her demos – which is really nice because not every dog moves like a Border Collie 🙂

Anna has posture work, and I am confident that Dogs4Motion will have posture work (in the tight sit and in a stand) because it is the industry standard now (although it might have a different name with them). I will also dig up videos of Hot Sauce’s posture work – I have videos from before/after her patella surgery, but nothing recent because I am too lay to video during any conditioning stuff LOL!!

With the jump grid stuff, I have found the dragging toy to be really helpful with getting organization when the dog is at top speed (she is doing this sometimes, but not all the time, thus the swimming). Does she do cavalettis? We can add a dragging toy to cavalettis as a first step (literally haha) to getting foot organization when she sees speed out ahead. We can add that in to Kim’s jump grid work after Sprite has mastered those challenges at normal speed LOL! And I have a new organization game for tight turns that I will video when I get home this week (if Air Canada stops cancelling flights) – I don’t have my dogs with me but we did the game yesterday with some young dogs and it was really cool to see them process it so quickly.

And yes, with the bar crashing – it is an error of organization when you suddenly go fast. My Voodoo used to do that too, when he was an adolescent. It is more common than you might realize, because the go is organizing ALL the things and also t tying to go fast, and sometimes things don’t turn out that well 🙂 I see it happen especially on the jump before a tunnel, and a jump after a tunnel. That is where she is doing it too, for the most part.

So for now, let’s keep the bars low and no need for you to run really fast or have transitions to high speed. Keeping things super smooth for now really helps the youngsters, as we teach them the skills they need to organize while we sprint. You have looked “inside” at hips and stuff, so any side preference, strength or weakness is pretty normal (at 17 months old, 2 of my dogs were incredibly weak turning to their right) just like us humans 🙂 Chiro said she was good to go, so the only other thing to add at the moment is trigger point massage as a regular part of her routine (recommended for all dogs).

It is interesting that you mention figure skating! There are a couple of handler mechanics that I think are similar to figure skating, such as arm placement when trying to rotate fast. And, like figure skaters, the dogs need to know how to organize their bodies to lift off properly – sometimes she does, but when she is chasing your motion, she sometimes does not. So we will have you be ultra connected and moving medium-fast on sequences, as she is learning the organization – then it will all come together.

If she gets into jumping trouble on a sequence like she did here, you can immediately lower the bars and also keep up the rewards. I am definitely in the minority in agility in that I don’t feel the need to stop and tell the dog that they dropped the bar LOL! I mean… they know. And by the time I process that the bar has dropped, the stopping (neg punishment) is really unrelated to whatever decision caused it. And Sprite is a good girl and if she knew how to organize at speed, she would totally do it every time. That jumping effort where she splats the bar doesn’t feel good, but if you also tell her she was wrong, we risk more of an unpleasant emotion being built in. And if one bar drops, try not to stop suddenly as that will pull the next bar (like at :18). For baby dogs, I keep going and maybe reward a tunnel – then adjust the sequence for the next rep. She is not being wild or anything, so staying in motion and rewarding something else will keep her feeling good about it even when the jumping is hard. The 2-failure rule is in place here too – 2 jumping failures in a session? Dial it back, and we will do more teaching 🙂

Wingin’ it looked fabulous! I am loving her commitment! I don’t think you did too much for her here, but yes, protect that gorgeous new grass haha!
On most of the reps, you were doing good commitment and collection cues, rotating when she was close to the jump wing and committing – the resulted in nice turns! You were starting to get really comfortable at 1:05 and you rotated just as she was passing you… perfect! She maintained her commitment AND had a stunning wrap. The earlier cue really gave her more time to shift her body.

The race tracks at the end were great, she seemed to have a HUGE smile on her face. And great job with her verbals throughout, but the directionals and the LSMs 🙂

This gives me an ideas as we work to teach her to organize herself for jumping: on the sequences that have a turn or something that might be a hard jumping effort, we can take a 2-pronged approach:
– show her the skill at high speed with a wing replacing the turn jump, so she can get sorted out with reading motion before we ask for a jumping effort.
– then add a bar and jump: since that is a big variable change, we then dial back your motion into a more smooth, slower speed.
We work it as 2 separate tracks that eventually merge so you can go fast as she is jumping!

>> Also, I’m probably going to try 4 on the teeter. Should I have her back up to 4 on?>>

Yes, you can totally have her back up to 4 on – starting with just 2on2off will get things rolling, then with reward placement you will quickly be able to get her to back up to 4on.

>>I looked at the one jump concept. I’m not sure I have a rear cross wrap and we haven’t done much backside sends. I might just try with the jumps first.>>

For the jumps here, it is a good opportunity to first work things with a wing on the wraps and backside pushes! She can ‘see’ the cues and organize for a wing, then when she is happy with that, we add the jump back in. There is also a jump before and after the tunnel here, so keep the motion smooth and not that fast for now with bars at 12, and we will gradually ramp the speed back up then raise the bars again.

Great job 🙂 Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! I am so sorry to hear you ended up so sick! You ran so well at the live class! I am glad you are feeling well enough to do a little training – no rush, we have all summer to get the games in.

These were good choices of games – gives him a brain workout while you don’t have to run. You’ve already been working on his body awareness, and it shows! The plank game looked great, he as a fast and happy to go running back and forth across it. Even when the angle of entry was a little offset, he still used his rear and core to balance and had no trouble being coordinated.

He turned around really well too! The only thing I might suggest differently on the turning around is to make him do it slowly 🙂 Going fast, he was able to work his front and his hind end just kind of followed along without moving all that independently. So now, have him follow your hand slowly, so he has to work each back foot independently as well 🙂

Next step for this game? Raise the plank a little 🙂 What do you have that you can put under it, to lift it a bit while keeping it stable – Cato planks would work nicely if you have them, or yoga bricks or anything like that.

Mountain climber: As soon as he realized there was food at the top, it was GAME ON! Ha! When he stopped at :36, maybe it was because he thought he didn’t have permission to move?

Good job moving the chair in tighter at :54 so the teeter wouldn’t rattle or bounce – I am not sure if it was bothering him, but he definitely started going faster when the teeter was more stable.

Then he was getting a little nutty, trying to turn around, losing balance, jumping off, then running back up it. I am glad he was so confident! And he was happy to let you add more movement, so he was faster. NICE!
So, since he liked this 🙂 you can add more motion – I like to send the dog around a wing the up the teeter (just be sure he has a straight angle of entry to the teeter). And you can also add running past it too. And since he is fast and confident enough to turn around and jump up… try a shmear of cream cheese or squeeze cheese so that he stays there licking it, so you can go back and help him get off the board LOL!

The only other thing to suggest for now on this game is to play it on both the Clip N Go teeters and a MAX200 type teeter, if you can find one in your adventures – they feel very different to young dogs, so I like to play this game on both before we start moving the board.

Great job on these! I hope you continue to relax and feel better this weekend!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Yes, she did really well here! Lots to love about this session! (Also as you noted, the back door is closed – maybe it is a bigger distraction than you give it credit for!)

Strange about the left turns – always include those so I can see what she is doing and either try to help or at least say “what the heck??” LOL! The left turns look really good, she definitely has the commitment here we are looking for. And good tugging in between too!! Nice! I think that she was a little wide on the left turns on the pinwheel jump for a couple of reasons – you were a little late turning, and she is probably looking at something out there (looking at what? Dunno… puppies LOL!!!) . You can also spread. The jumps out a little, because they are relatively close so she would need to collect more on those left turns than she did on the right turns. The right turns had a smoother line than the left turns did based on the setup – just a tiny difference, but enough for her 🙂

She was fabulous here and when you went faster, she said “LOOK MA I GOT FASTERS IN ME TOO!” Eek! That is exciting! So now, spread the setup out a bit and start adding the verbals, timing, and crosses.

Great job!
Tracy

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