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Good morning!
> I guess I just can’t help but feel behind on everything, haven’t even made it through most of the week 3 stuff. >
This is totally relatable and also unfortunately normal with young dogs… that feeling of always being a bit behind. You are perfectly on the right track! You are working the week 3 stuff which means you are in the correct week, and doing well with the training! Add in the up-and-down of adolescent dogs where they know something then they don’t know it then they know it again… it is hard on our human brains! (Side note, ask me what week of this class my 13 month old puppy is on… haven’t even started the pre-games LOL!!!)
>Trials and new places may be the majority of the chances we have to do training for the next few months.>
This is good, and it will make for a lot of great opportunities. Structuring the sessions will help you get a ton in while also making it easy to be in new environments.
>In all honesty, I was tempted to end the session after working the first direction, which would have been right at the 2 minute mark >
You can take a break, let her walk around or chill, then come back later or during the next walk through, etc. So it can be multiple 2 minutes sessions spread out during the day.
>but quitting after two failures would have meant quitting after the first two reps, which would have made this feel like a pretty meaningless session.>
The 2 failure rule is not about stopping after 2 failures, it is about adjusting to be able to keep the rate of success closer to 90%. So after failure 2, you can adjust the session like changing her position so the answer is extremely obvious. Or, if you don’t know why it was going wrong, stopping for a moment to watch the video in slow motion – I admit that watching the video in the moment is a BIG pain in the butt and goes against my inherent laziness 🙂 but it has always been worthwhile because I can see what is happening and change it.
Sometimes we don’t know why it is going wrong… so we can stop asking for the skill and do something else that is very successful for the rest of the session. For example, if she simply cannot hold a stay during your next training session, and there is no discernible reason why – chalk it up to adolescence and do some wing wraps or something else. That way she still gets super valuable learning about how to do stuff in a hard environment.
> I DID make my handling very easy and obvious at that point, knowing she now also had a person hovering behind her). >
She did well with the hovering person! That was a lot of pressure but also useful pressure: it was like having a leash runner in the ring!
>I knew I would not have another opportunity to work the second direction for probably a long time, and since by then she seemed to have figured out the game we were playing, I expected the second direction would be super quick (it wasn’t).>
That is where the 2 failure rule can help – if you get an ‘oh crud this is not going as expected’ moment, you can give her a simpler starting point for example: facing the bar more or a cookie toss start instead of a stay.
The environment increases the challenge significantly enough that you can take out one of the challenges like the toy on the ground, or the stay, etc. And the cool thing you will experience is that she might not need to work the skill on both sides – she is likely to be able to lock the skill in even if she only gets a session on one side. That is one of the joys of BW brain – generalizing skills even if you haven’t worked both sides.
Let me know what you think! And again – you are not behind, you are doing GREAT, she looks fantastic. You are getting so much incredible stuff happening with her, all while balancing your career work with other dogs & their people, AND judging AND training/trialing your other dogs. WOW! That is really impressive and I am super excited for what is ahead for you and Beat 😍🤩
Tracy
Good morning!
This is looking super strong, Laura Rose! Yay! It was an efficient, happy session: the play and the transitions back to the ‘work’ looked very smooth and happy. He was happy to tug, eat a treat, get the toy back when offered or line up for the jump (he was almost putting himself into the line up). And when you let him have the toy to himself for a moment while you moved back to the start spot, he took it on a quick party trip then brought it back to you for more play.
This stuff makes my heart smile, because the play and transitions make the skill work very easy: his stays look great (nice reward at the end!) and the jumping looks really good too! YAY!
For the next session, you can raise the bar of jump 2 by 2 inches (I am sure he will do great) and if that goes well, another 2 inches 🙂 You might have to angle the set point to give him more room to land on grass the the bar gets higher.
Since this is going so well, have you tried any of the other games that will have higher arousal built in, such as the smiley face games or any game with a tunnel 🙂 I think he is ready and you can use your lovely play and transitions in those too!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! Thanks for the comparison videos, they are very useful!
In the videos, he is doing well in the class environment. But the big thing. See is that the class setting is a lot more sterile than the trial setting, which is why the trial was such a big challenge for him. The ring at class is enclosed on a couple sides with solid walls, there was no one else in the ring (one bar setter came in during the first video, another one came in in the 2nd video) and the rubber footing makes is very different touch and smell for him. Plus he has reinforcement history in this environment but doesn’t have any reinforcement history yet in the dirt rings.
And it was hard for him to ignore the people near the start area, you can see he had trouble sticking with the stay in the beginning of the 2nd video – food was available but it sounds like there were other people & dogs nearby, so he was leaving to investigate. This struggle is also an insight into why he would struggle at the trial – many more dogs and people outside the ring, and more people inside the ring… and no food available in the ring/no reward history.
>Most of his reward was back at his crate in the adjoining room after each run.>
This might be a little far away for developing a reward system that you can use at trials. It is working for the most part in this specific location, but since trials are wildly different, it is not clear to him where the reward is and how/when to earn it.
So one thing to add to class/home/lessons is a reward station that you can bring with you everywhere. I use a small soft folding stool 🙂 And while most runs in training still have rewards in the ring (to keep building the obstacle and handling skills, and keep being in the ring super fun), I do throw in runs where the reward is outside the ring and I use the remote reinforcement marker. Knowing where the reward is can be extremely clarifying for him, especially in new places where things are so unpredictable.
Also, in class, convince your classmates and instructor to get into the ring like ring crew and a judge. When you begin this, you will want to have rewards with you to pay him for ignoring him (ring crew being added plus no rewards is too hard as a starting point). And you should ask folks to have their other dogs outside the ring – being visible, warming up, etc. Add as much as possible so he learns to deal with what he will see at the trial. Pattern games will be extremely helpful for him assessing the environment as the challenges increase.
And for rewards – I definitely think we need to build a ‘bridge’ so you can do FEO/NFC runs in the trial environment. Since he is a foodie, using a food pouch or lotus ball on a toy is a good starting point: the food is in the pouch in training at first, and he can have the food from the pouch. The food toy will take on lots of value pretty quickly!
Then we incorporate the food toy as the bridge toy and not as food holder all the time. The food stays on the reward station outside the ring but you run with the empty food toy – and when you want to reward (after every few obstacles at first) you present the empty food toy with your remote reinforcement marker – then run to the reward station to get food. He doesn’t need to interact with the empty food toy in terms of tugging, it is mainly a visual aid to help him out as you fade the food rewards in different/harder environments.
Having that bridge will allow you to work through the FEO/NFC steps of ‘just like home’ and ‘empty hands’, and having a clear reward station will allow you to work through all 4 FEO/NFC steps! And the reward station is also good for if you can find a UKI trial that has a food reward box. These FEO/NFC steps & reward station are what will help him acclimate to the challenging trial environment more quickly. Trying without that will be a lot harder.
>Venture wears a belly band in the building and I remove it when we enter the ring to run and put it back on after each turn. Then we go outside, band off and decompress. I’m tempted to try this at the next trial even though it’s a dirt arena, just to reinforce the potty in the grass only rule.>
You can try it for sure! I am not sure it is an answer because the marking is a stress behavior, so we will want to eliminate the stress (which will eliminate the peeing :)) Also, at a trial, we want to be sure that there are no accidental context cues – and taking the belly band off can become a context cue for going into the ring.
In class, there has been a history of food rewards so that context cue has been helpful: belly band off = good times coming! Yay! He is pretty relaxed and happy, and no urge to mark in these videos.
But in a trial, there are no food rewards in the ring (in fact, entering the ring signals the end of the food rewards) so taking the belly band off can become a context cue for entering the trial ring, which at this point might increase stress.
So I think the more important focal points are to develop ways to work FEO skills and the reward station, so he learns to run without food in a challenging environment.
>Next trial opportunity is a local ASCA trial on dirt, under cover. I originally planned to enter all the runs but I’m now leaning towards only 2 jumpers and 1 gamble Saturday and 2 or 3 runs on Sunday. >
ASCA has a lot of FEO opportunities! And there are also trial distractions and pressure. I agree that only a couple of runs each day, maximum, is what you want to do – you might even do just 1 or two because trial runs are mentally expensive for young dogs. But more importantly… let’s have FEO plans in place so you can work the FEO steps for these runs, to build up the understanding of being in the trial ring and reduce the stress.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>Haven’t done really any agility this week since I’ve been busy with business-building stuff>
Your future clients, myself included, are grateful for this!
> but I’m really glad you mentioned what you did in regards to Reacher missing the weaves last week because it addressed my gut feeling that I felt was right but was doubting myself.>
I feel like your gut feeling has a long history of being correct!
> So after the the second miss I didn’t do any more weaves afterwards.>
Very SMART! My philosophy is that it is better to stop than it is to create a problem where no problem exists 🙂
> Then, after my post to you I felt like he had more heat in that area when he was stretching up on my like he usually does, but usually there is no heat flooding into his back area. The weather has indeed been up and down and I did do the skin rolling and some massage and while he was not crazy tight I do think that was it.>
I am glad you found spots to help him out! I think the cold then warm then cold (plus icy) weather does a number on the dog’s muscles.
>On another topic, since you are teaching these topics in June and if I should be so fortunate to snag a working spot, which would you recommend for Reacher considering where we are and what we need to focus on?
-Turning Tails: Mastering the Handling of a Great Turn
-Discriminations
-Introduction to International Skills
-Beyond Novice
-ISC/UKI Coursework>Definitely Beyond Novice, that is going to be geared specifically for the Reacher And Friends Crew 🙂
My 2nd choice for him would be the Turning Tails – he turns really well, so our focus would be figuring out just how tight his turns need to be, and how to balance a ton of speed in and out of them.The discriminations and Intro to international skills will be fun too, but it depends on how much you want to focus on that style of handling.
>I have some ideas on what I think would be best but curious what you think!>
Let me know what you think! I am looking forward to it!
Tracy
Hi!
Great session here, and it looks like he was having fun!! He seemed to have no questions about finding the jump. Super!It was hard to see the tunnel entry – you can be saying the exit cue (GO!) before he enters (and again as he exits :)) to help him drive out straight. And since he was so happy driving ahead, you can play with adding a turn on the tunnel exit: when he is going towards the tunnel but still about 2 meters from arriving at it, cue a turn and then do a FC and run the other way. That can challenge him to NOT go find the jump, unless you cue it 🙂
>The last repetition here I did put the toy on the ground for him to make up for 2 sessions of my crappy throws.>
Placing the toy on the line is great especially for when you are behind him. If it is easy to throw, cool, we throw. But sometimes we are just too far or too behind to throw well LOL!! And you can use 2 toys for when you are throwing in some balance reps: one toy stays on the line past the jump on every rep, and he gets it when you mark him correctly going to the straight line. And the other toy can be in your hand as the reward for when you cue a turn on the tunnel exit. A fun mental challenge for him!
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
Hi! What a fun session! And yay for working outdoors several sessions in a row!
>Sorry about the camera work – needed a bit more zoom on some of those reps.>
No apologies needed, it all looked really good!
The goal of this game is that the dogs go find the jump with line focus and speed, regardless of where the handler supports the line from. Mission accomplished here, he was spot on in terms of finding the jump each and every time, no changes in arousal, no questions, nice striding. Super! His only question was on the tunnel cue at :29 – you said it and disconnected/moved away pretty quickly so he looked at you, and then continued to the tunnel. I think moving away that early is fine but you can stay connected to him with your eyes for longer to help support the line.
My only other suggestion is to use your toy marker verbal 🙂 But he had no questions there either.
For the next session, we can work on him driving ahead to the jump. That means you should run to the tunnel, touch it (to prevent you from leaving position too early :)) and wait for him to be just about exiting… then run forward so he can power past you.
Great job!!!
Tracy
Hi! This is a super useful video!
> The other end of the building there were dogs running, but she couldn’t really see them from here. >
She could hear them, though, some really big things audible in the background. She turned her head that way when there was a big teeter slam, and also at 2:47 approx when someone as yelling LOUDLY (at their dog?)
>but not the second person who walked past while she was in a stay.
Not sure if this was just too much for her right now? >Yes, that person was basically walking right towards her, and she is a sweet, inexperienced 10-month old (not even 10 months yet?) So it was a little too much. Plus the session was over 2 minutes long at that point, and she had passed the 2 failure rule threshold so there might have been some depletion of impulse control in her brain there too.
>Not really sure how else to test the waters with giving her some chances to work in this type of environment without risking her making that kind of mistake. >
Don’t think of it as testing, think of it as gaining experience and building behavior 🙂 A lot of options for that here – it was not a terrible mistake, it looked like was a greeting. The person was close enough that all Beat had to do was stand up to get to her. Also, bear in mind that she is an adolescent… impulse control is hard! And what they knew yesterday might not be what they know today (but it will be back tomorrow LOL!) so you can always change the plan, especially in hard environments.
One thing to make the priority here is that the environment is the hard part, so the skills you ask for should be very easy and virtually fail-proof. That also means we humans have to be almost hyper-vigilant and if you see someone approaching, get closer to her or release her to you so you can reward not greeting the person 🙂 It will get easier for her with more exposure.
And, TONS of pattern games and tricks for toys in that environment will help! You did have some pattern games in the session here, but the cookie tosses were really quick, perhaps too quick for her to assess/dismiss the environment. You can let her really engage back up to you then toss the next cookie.
Also, use pattern games or reinforcement for engagement to transport her back to a starting spot, rather than a cookie on the nose. That will give her more opportunity to learn about the environment in those in-between moments, which can be key!
Also, setting a timer to do maybe 90 seconds then be done is great for this super ‘expensive’ environment. This video was 4:43 with edits for resets, making it a bit too long with too many failures.
Living by the 2 failure rule will also help with engagement in hard environments. Anything that is marked as a failure (marker, toy withheld or removed, change of body language: all of that counts as a failure even if there is a reset cookie or pattern game after it).
After 2 total failures, make things easy enough that there are no more failures, then end the session to watch the video and see what was happening. In the moment, it doesn’t really matter why there were 2 failures, it only matters that there were only 2, total, to keep engagement high, arousal in the right place, and frustration low. When she got to 4 failures, she was starting to check out a bit. After failure 5, she was starting to look around (frustration comes up, arousal changes, environment becomes more obvious). By the end, she was 7 or 8 failures in and was jumping up on you more than driving to the toy. So definitely be aware of how much failure was happening – and if you can’t identify why, better to end with something really easy then watch the video.One other thing that was causing failures was the release: the hand and verbal were happening together on the successful releases, so I think the hand was taking on meaning as the release! Then when you did the hand alone without the verbal, I think she released every time. So as you move through a serp or threadle, have your hand already up and in position – then add the verbal separately, so the hand movement doesn’t get paired into the release. (And also live by the 2 failure rule with stays included in the 2 total failures :)) if you get an early release from the stay, always spot check yourself to make sure the arm cue is not accidentally releasing her 🙂
(Side note: failures on handling games are 99% due to handler or setup errors, which is what was happening here, making the 2 failure rule even more important. That way she is not told she was wrong when she was actually correct :))
>I tried to warm her up with just some static serps, but she was confusing it with the threadle cue. >
I think she was correct – on the first rep, for example, she was on the threadle line based on where she was looking as you led out, and then you released at the entry wing (:15) which is threadle position, so she threadled (also failure 1 of the 2 in the 2 failure rule).
>A while back I did feel like she needed a verbal cue, “push”, for the serp cue to help differentiate from the threadle cue, especially when doing it statically. >
You are welcome to add a serp verbal but it gets tricky with all the different types of serp lines. The small space serp versus threadle relies on handler position for the release and threadle verbal versus regular release or directional/jump verbal. So leading out with you arm up and connection, then releasing when you are in between the uprights near the exit wing will help a lot (and with threadle verbal near the entry wing will get the threadle).
Also, setting her up on a clearer angle for now will help too – a lot of the threadles she did were when she was set up facing the upright of the jump, and watching you. The release and re-connection and arm came simultaneously on those, so since she was already watching you and could see the threadle line, she threadled.
You can also reward great effort because the environment is very challenging and the skill was challenging. On the 2nd rep, you had much clearer handler position. The serp was not perfect, but it was ‘close enough’ considering the environment and you can play with her on that. Note the pressure of the person standing behind her and watching, plus your arm cue happened after the release at :44. So definitely rewardable at this stage! Without the reward, you have gotten to the 2 failure threshold where I suggest changing the goal of the session and ending it sooner rather than later.
And if she threadles when you wanted a serp? You can reward that too, because there was likely something cueing it 🙂 Then you can make the next rep easier to get success.
So overall, as the environment gets harder, keep the skills easier. And since sometimes what we plan turns out to not be easier, you can dial it back more if you are getting errors for whatever reason.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>The judge was Don Farage.>
Cool! I will add him to my list of judges who put up good courses 🙂
>I did notice he wasn’t striding through the poles as nicely. It didn’t occur to me that he might be sore. >
Small dogs can often get sore in dirt, because it is relatively deep for them. For my smaller dogs, that soreness shows up in the weaves and it is usually in their mid-back T12-T13 area.
>Jake, my older dog, got a a massage but hadn’t thought of Indy getting one yet. We are trialing next weekend in Blue Springs and I now have a massage scheduled for both of them.>
Perfect! And even if he is not sore then, it is great to get him used to massages and body work as part of his event lifestyle 🙂 He has big things ahead, so bodywork will be very helpful.
>As I was walking the standard course yesterday I literally said out loud, I need my teacher here! You!! >
Feel free to send an email or message! But you didn’t really need me at all – you had the answer!
>The line to the weaves was the exact same as the Exc/ Master course. It was a struggle for most teams. I did a FC after the panel for Jake & he missed the entrance completely so I knew I wanted to stay on the near side for Indy. I knew I needed to cue deceleration to get a tighter turn & I’m realizing now, I didn’t even give him the verbal La La to indicate it. Bad handler.>
It was challenging!! Those types of discriminations are very popular nowadays!
>Sonia was the videographer. She is so supportive of all of us. I didn’t even know she was filming.>
She is simply fabulous!!!!!
> It’s encouraging to me when the people who have hung around for the novice group are cheering every dog on regardless of what did or didn’t happen in the ring. I need to start doing that on Fridays. We don’t typically run on Sundays so when we are done on Saturday we are packing up to get on the road home since we have so few trials in town.>
The novice folks would surely love the support! It is hard to begin a dog’s career, so many ups and downs, and they would probably appreciate the cheers 🙂
>TY for the videos on skin rolling. I will start doing that. I really don’t have much of a cool down routine. I try to warm them up before we head to the gate area & then while we are there, I continue doing stretches, the find my face game, some rally healing just to keep their attention on me. >
For cool downs, I usually do a long sniffy walk and then more skin rolling 🙂 If I can’t do the cool down immediately (like when I am grabbing the next dog to run – you might experience this when Indy is in Masters), I do it as soon as I can. I also really like Back On Track coats – they seem to reduce soreness! I have used them on myself with great results too 🙂
>Yesterday was tall to small & a lab was barking nonstop in the ring which was making Indy nervous.>
Yeah, that would definitely be a little anxiety-inducing!
> So we went outside, with another team who was outside for the same reason, and we did the find my face game & got Indy happy again.
That was smart to take him out and get him playing to get happy again!
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Tracy
Hi!
> we did a quick follow-up session with the Sends & Serp. The bar is lowered from 12″ to 8″ and the jump is angled a lot, at least 45 degrees. Success rate: 6 out of 7!>
This went great!! The angle of the jump was just right, to help her out. In the next session, angle it a little less 🙂 And you can exagerate the serp arm being held back, that will help her find the serp even better. And throw in some FCs on the wing to keep the handler focus balance 🙂
The Minny Pinny is going well too! She is bouncing a pretty big distance – good girl!!!
She got the turn aways to the right better than to the left (same with going right versus left from the ‘neutral’ position: right wasa little stronger. So you can reduce the help on the right turns by angling her/leaning less. And if you get one error, no biggie, ask for the next rep with the same exact body language and see if she can fix it.For the left turns, I think that helping her with a slight angle is still useful for now – the lefts just seemed a little harder. The left turns will end up catching up to the right turns and I am sure she will be very balanced.
Zig zags looked great! The stay does make this game a lot easier 🙂 I am chuckling because my suggestion to you for when you get to 3 and 4 wings was going to be to cue faster 🙂 Then on the last rep you cued SUPER fast, and it was great! She was very fast here but also she was responding to the cues… so if you were late, the lines got wider. So the faster cues are the way to go: as soon as you see her shift her weight towards the gap you want her to take, you can cue the next gap. It might feel like a sped-up version of 70s disco moves LOL but it worked really well 🙂
Great job!!
Tracy
Hi!
While I am thinking of it:>> I wonder if I should work more with food for a while to get more focus on me or if I should be patient and happy that she will drive to the toy.>>
You can also do the balance reps like on the serp game, for example: the TnT is out there the whole time, and sometimes you serp to it. And on some reps, you do a FC on the start wing to change her line with handling… and if she follows the handling, you can then send to the TnT. The balance reps can totally help make sure we’ve got handler focus too 🙂
T
Hi!
Good for you for weighting down the barrels – the wind tried its best to push them over!
She did well here! Super nice tight turns on the tunnel exit (but also went straight really well when you cued it). She also did well with the barrel wraps – there were one or two moments in the beginning where you connection was not as clear so she was not sure where to be on the barrel, but you sorted that out really well so in the longer sequences, she found the line really well! Yay!>She was still trotting, it helped when I picked up speed. She was also getting tired.>
Since she seemed to really understand what to do, we can now get more speed 🙂 What toy does she really love? A ball? You can use a reward that makes her wild 🙂 Also, you can spread out the setup to get as much room as possible: you can put the tunnel as close to the fence as possible and then try for 20 feet between the tunnels and barrels. That way you can really run run run, which will get her running too 🙂 She tends to decelerate when you decelerate, so more acceleration plus crazier rewards can get her pumped up to run. Plus, you can let her watch her ‘brother’ Wayne run it… then let her run it once. Then Wayne, then back to MissL. That can really get her pumped up and running hard 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Hope you are enjoying a nice weekend! The serps went GREAT!!!! The added distance beteen the wing and jump was no problem for him. My only suggestion is to make sure he sees the serp info (arm back, you between the uprights) as he is exiting the wing wrap. You were tending to be late with the serp arm/open shoulders, doing it more as he was approaching the jump.The rep from :33 – :36 was a good example of the serp arm/shoulder cue being late. As he was exiting the wing wrap at :34, you had your arm perpendicular to your body and to the bar. That ‘closed’ shoulder doesn’t really cue the in-then-out of the serp (for many dogs it cues them to layer). So he was staying out on his line at :35 when you did open up the serp shoulder – he did come back in and take the jump, but ending up hitting the wing with his shoulder because he was looking at you and not making the left turn to the toy.
Compare to the next rep from :39 to :42 where your serp arm (and position visible through the uprights of the jump) was visible as he was exiting the wing. This was a well-timed cue and cued the in-then-out serp very nicely!
> I think those front cross reps were not right!>
The first couple were on the wrong side of the jump to show the balance line, but the last one (:43) was great! The goal of the FC is to have the handler on the same line as you ran on the serp – but you will be doing a FC after the wing instead of the serp. You can have the toy on the ground as this adds a good challenge too: does Judge watch the handling for the side change, or does he just run to the toy on the ground? If he makes the side change on the FC, you can send him to the toy from the new side.
Great job!!
Tracy
Hi!
He did well here – it is a super hard game!On the reps where he started at your side, even when he was turning away from you, he was very successful. You can reward that first rep when he went around the middle jump – he got distracted but brought himself back to work really well 🙂
>Max struggled with me behind him. He wants to watch me (all good things come from Mommy). Max also doesn’t like to be between my legs or be held by his hips or shoulders. He is a freebird!>
He is definitely an adorable freebird 🙂
When he is starting between your feet, you can move your position relative to the jump bar a tiny bit to set up more success in which way to go. Having more success will help him like being in that ‘neutral’ start position even more!
Also, to help him love being held more, you can use a cookie lure to line him up where you want him, then gently take hold of him… then give him one more cookie 🙂 That will probably get him happier to line up than if you are moving him into position by his collar or body.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Now we have a good beginner-level stay and she will look directly at me and take the jump when I start with the stay. I’d say we are 100% successful on that,>
Yes! She did great on those reps!!
> but when I add the send to the wing we are below 50%. Usually she runs around the jump and I don’t really notice her looking at me after the wing.>
When adding the wing, there were several variables added which made it harder: the main variables being a lot more speed from her, and more motion from you. That tends to get BCs running parallel to the handler more, which is part of what makes serpentines so hard.
So, since we can’t dial back her speed 🙂 and you will need to be moving, we can reduce other variables to get the behavior:
– angle the jump so the bar is facing her a lot more as she exits the wing. Your line and the MM will be in the same spot, but the bar will be easier to access and to get the in-and-out turns she needs to do. Angle is as much as needed to get success! Then as she gets more comfy with it, you can gradually angle it back to the original ‘flat’ position. When the jump eventually returns to the original position (might take a few sessions) you can start without the MM there to help make the bar more visible. Then add the MM back in.
– lower the bar, so it is easier to coordinate the movement for her. Try 8 inches til she can get it at speed.
>In class I’ve noticed that Ellie is very focused on running to her reward and I’m not sure how much she is really taking direction from me after I release her and send her on a line.>
If the reward is consistently placed out on the line you want her to go to, and she sees it in advance of any cues… it is entirely possible that the reward is being placed too early and she thinks the game is to run to wherever the toy is placed. This can work for you, and against you!
> She watches me really closely as I lead out though and has great eye contact when I look back to release her.>
This is good – but remember we don’t want her to make a lot of eye contact with you on course. Ideally, the dogs never have to look directly at us on course – they are looking at their line. And on the start line, it is fine for her to look at her line as you lead out and not at you as well! Their job is to watch the handling peripherally. Our job is to give good info LOL!
> Usually the instructor throws the toy for her at the end of the sequence >
This is good! Ask the instructor to vary their position a LOT so Ellie is not figuring out the line based on where the instructor stands. Dogs definitely do that, they are brilliant about figuring out context cues like that.
> places the toy on the ground after the last obstacle.>
That’s fine too, as long as that doesn’t always mean the line goes directly there, and you use a marker to indicate she can get it (like ‘get it’ :)) If I place a toy, it is out there the whole time including when I pass that section but don’t want the dog to get the toy.
> I wonder if I should work more with food for a while to get more focus on me or if I should be patient and happy that she will drive to the toy.>
I would work on using the toy so it is a reward and not a target. It sounds like she thinks that she should go where the toy is, and the sequence/handling might be supporting that. Varying where the instructor stands so it is not relevant to where the toy will be thrown, and varying how/when you use the toy is the way to go. Taking the toy out and only using food might be very limiting for you and very frustrating for her. It sounds like she *does* have very good focus on you, but she is also very smart and predicts how to earn the toy based on where it is placed or where the instructor stands 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! These were nice course designs with good spacing. Who is the judge?
>I was able to read your feedback before our Open runs today. I hope my runs today reflect better timing on cues!>
Yes! He had a lot of lovely info here and there was so much great work in these runs.
>After 4 perfect weave runs, he popped them once in JWW & twice in Standard, 🤨.>
I think he was sore and/or tired… look at the difference in his striding in the weaves for these runs (wall/trot/bounce alternating, he couldn’t find a rhythm) versus the T2B and JWW runs you posted on 4/11 – on those runs, he was doing the hop/bounce back and forth, great rhythm! So the change in striding and not being able to stay in the poles can be a sign that he is sore. When my dogs are sore mid-back, I see the same striding change and errors. I do a lot of skin rolling and warm up active stretching, plus long cool downs, back on track coats, etc. We can look at his warm up and cool down routine to see where he might need more to stay feeling good over the course of a weekend.
FAST: he was a superstar in the send! NICE!!!!
>I set him up at the beginning for a straight line to the Aframe but he didn’t take it. >
I don’t think he saw it as a straight line – the line to the a-frame was visually angled even if he was set on a straight line. More motion support will help, and less lead out. You lead out to it, released, cued it but then immediately disconnected and took off so he followed you. If you watch it in slow motion, you can see how the disconnection changed his line.
>I have to keep reminding myself, he’s a green dog!>
100% this! He is still a baby dog. There is already soooooo much brilliance, so you can keep moving if there is any bloopers or questions, no need to fix anything. Bloopers are almost always handling errors.
Remember that missing obstacles are handler errors (which are stressful for dogs) and then stopping to fix it is also stressful… so keep going then watch the video after the run to see what went wrong. Fixing the aframe here also threw off the timing and line to the weaves, so he ended up looking at the ring crew (it is a bit of a stress response from him… note how he never looks at ring crew when things are moving nicely in flow and the info is clear!)
Staying in motion really helped the 2nd half of the run be fast & focused! He did a great job on the send – there were a lot of lines on the ground LOL!!
Thanks for the 2 views on the standard and JWW runs!! I loved your support crew cheering 🙂
JWW:
He had trouble here in the weaves (different striding and you got a little far ahead) but the rest looked fabulous! Lovely connection!Standard – I love your video person being supportive here too, can she come to trials with me too? Everyone needs someone like this in their life, to help pump them up!
On this run, you had a great line of support to the a-frame and he was perfect.
Loved how you stayed connected with your eyes and also your voice!
Loved the blind after the frame and after the tunnel – you were really driving the handling here, not tentative or careful. It was GREAT!!!! He loved it too 🙂On the line from the tunnel to the weaves: the turn cues on the panel to weaves can be sooner – he thought it was the DW (I was not sure which it was til after he landed from the panel). Try to be turning him to the weaves as he lands from the jump after the tunnel, then be saying weaves before he takes off for the panel. So as he lands from the jump before the panel, you can begin cueing the left turn and even use a brake arm (opposite arm) to get the collection. The weave versus dog walk is definitely a discrimination – clever course design 🙂
Table to the end looked great – excellent handling and connection! Wowza!!!
Great job here!!!! Is he running today? If so, check his back for tightness but gently rolling his skin between your thumb and fingers, down his back. If he is loose and feeling great, his skin will feel super loose. Of he is tight, you will feel that it is harder to roll – sticky or even crunchy! And you might even see skin twitches.
I found a bunch of videos of skin rolling on Youtube in case you’ve never done it. Here is one, this dog looks very loose 🙂
Have fun!
Tracy
