[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Sorry to hear it has been a tough couple of weeks and I hope the covid vaccine is not hitting you too hard!! But glad to hear you enjoyed Lori’s seminar 🙂 I will keep an eye out for her seminars for sure!

Arram did really well on all of these. He is young, obviously LOL so he has some questions plus you are still sorting out his timing needs. Some ideas for you:

Video 1 – On these lead outs, try to line him up facing the jump before the first send, take a moment, then send. If he is looking at you and you suddenly start, he was taking the jump but not sure where to go – for example :18 he was moving but looking around, not sure where to be on the jump. He can definitely handle more slice angles, so you can gently hold his collar for a moment while he is facing it to let him look at it for a moment.

When you had him on the slice jumping towards the course at 1:12, he did beautifully and read that challenging rear cross – really nice! So that angle plus a lead out will help get the wrap to the left there too, so you can decel and rotate your feet to cue the wrap.

2nd video: I think he is ready for more of a slice angle on jump 1 on these too! Really nice job on the backsides, both the push wrap and threadle wrap. Depending on how his stay is going, you and add more distance on your lead outs on these slice openings too.

Video 3 – he is doing well with the backside stuff too!

He is ready for more trust, in terms of positional cues and not over-helping the backsides 🙂 For the push wraps, you can use more connection (dog side arm back, eyes on his eyes), and run to where the wing meets the bar but don’t block the wing. The first rep was good position but not quite enough connection, and the 2nd and 3rd reps wing more connection there but you were wing blocking (putting yourself on his line past the wing) so he wasn’t really sure where to be and you had to rotate to get it. So blend the position of the first rep with the connection of reps 2 and 3, and you will be perfect!

Threadle wrap – when you gave big obvious arms and went forward with connection? He was super! So definitely don’t rush this move (this is a slow motion move, even for experienced dogs). When coming in from the blind, you can decel, use big arms & connection, and move straight forward. Moving towards the jump was pushing him to the front of it, and if you were moving too fast he didn’t get organized to do it. So that decel and moving straight with big arms cues will help, no need to move away until after he has turned his head and is moving towards the jump. My favorite rep was at 1:42, nice and patient and connected! You can fade out the foot rotation too: see if you can keep your feet moving forward as your upper body, position and verbal cue the wrap. Turning your feet to the jump looks similar to the threadle slice, so feet facing forward will help keep the threadle wrap very distinct.

2:09 was also good, but you were rushing a bit for the next reps. 3:44 was also really patient and clear – the next sep is to definitely fade out the foot rotation.

Backside slices – I think you can trust him more on these too 🙂 You can be moving on a parallel line to his path, more towards the center of the bar, so you don’t end up showing wrap position and so you don’t end up in his landing spot.

At 4:42 and 5:12 for example you got past the entry wing so he went to the backside but then you were in the way so he didn’t take the jump. He took is nicely when you sent from further away at the very end, so definitely trust him more so as he gets to the backside of the jump, you are out of the way and he will take the jump 🙂

Video 4
Nice blind to the tunnel! REALLY nice timing and position at 1:52! He is doing really well reading the discriminations.

Nice backside after the tunnel – it is another good trust moment (so hard to trust the baby dogs!) so you can end to the backside then get outta there… otherwise you set the line to 3 (which he was looking at).
You left earlier on the 2nd and 3rd rep and it helped him drive the line really nicely!
He had trouble turning away whatever distraction is past the weaves so didn’t quite get into the tunnel. Also, it is possible that he doesn’t fully understand the backside tunnel entry so you got some avoidance behaviors: leaving, sniffing, running on top of the tunnel LOL – that’s a good skill to isolate by starting where he can see it and working around the clock so you can get him to send without you needing to be close to it.

5th video: He did well here too! It is fun to see the pieces coming together 🙂

16″ was a little high for the parts that required thinking right now, he was slowing down a bit, so you can probably leave the hard bars lower (like 2-3-4) and have the easier bars at 16″.
The FC 3-4 worked nicely! On the first rep, your position was really good (where the wing and bar met, right on his line) and a nice early rotation so he turned really well and never considered the tunnel.

On the 2nd FC at :53, you were a little further past the position by a step by also you showed more acceleration and a later FC, and he was wider there. He was not scoping the tunnel, but he was responding to the cues he saw on the way to 2. Good boy!

After the FC on both reps, as soon as he lands, remember to decel so he turns before takeoff to the jump and not after landing to pick up the next line.

Great job here! He is really putting big pieces together. And I am glad Lanna smoked all of them 🙂 Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I audited the recent Got FACE class with Bobbie Bhambree.
I think some of those exercises have helped with her overall experiences too. yay!>>

That is super! I was really impressed with her resilience after the crash. She was like, “no problem, let’s get back at it.” Good girl!

>>How long are we able to post video for feedback in this class. I missed seeing that.

We are going to keep this open until Thanksgiving, so folks can get everything done 🙂
Have fun!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Yes, the US Open is very exciting and the hurricane added plenty of spice! We are back to normal weather now, thankfully.

This session went well, these are hard skills!

A couple of ideas for you:
– I think you should have separate verbals for the threadle slice and the threadle wrap 🙂 You can hate me now LOL!! It sounded like you were using the same for both but then adding left left for the wrap… but that makes things late and she is speedy 🙂 When she lands from jump 2, you can already be telling her if it is a slice or a wrap if you have 2 different verbals. But if it is the same verbal, you can’t really tell her til she is on the takeoff side and you also have to add lots of handling (which is why it was hard to get the last jump at the very end at 4:24, too much time spent handling the wrap). So definitely consider using the here cue for the slices and something entirely different for the wraps (I say “in in” for my threadle wraps). They are very different behaviors, so the different verbals will help her.

Doing the blind to set up the threadles definitely go you into position sooner. Just be sure that you keep moving forward until she can get o the threadle side and show her the arm cues. At 2:17 and the rep after it, you did the BC by pushed her to the front side. On the rep at 2:37 and after that, you gave her more room and showed her the threadle arm, and she got it nicely. YAY!!

The Push wraps looked great !!! On this sequence, you don’t need to go as close to 2 – you can send her to it and leave, so you can show the line to where the wing meets the bar to set up the backside wraps.

You’re going to hate me again… with her speed, I think you need 2 separate verbals for backside push wrap and backside push slice 🙂 I use “back” for the backside slices and “dig” for the backside wraps (repeated like you were repeating them). Like the threadles, they are VERY different behaviors so different verbals tell her a lot sooner what to do. She is very fast, to having the extra verbals will really help 🙂

>>Fritzi had her first crash on a jump, I left it in the video, let me know if you see something I did to cause it. I noticed she rubbed the jump before the crash too so maybe just testing proximity to the wings>>

Yikes, that was a big crash! She is very resilient, good girl!!

I watched it several times in slow motion – I think your handling is what the grown up version of the handling will be. But, she is young and had trouble processing all of the speed and cues (starting with rubbing the wing on jump 2). So as you ran through to the takeoff side she got disorganized and had the crash. So, considering we eventually want you to handle like that: do everything the same but don’t move as fast, so she can process the cues while seeing less speed and less countermotion. That way she can think about the jumping organization. This is similar to what you did at 4:00 and the rep after it, and it really helped set her up for success. As she gets more experienced, you will be able to add back more and more of your speed. And having the separate verbals will help too, because she will be getting info sooner.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Yes, she was very happy to do the distance work 🙂 She looked super! I think if we clarify the verbals and use them sooner then it will be even easier.

>>Are there cues for turn left or right out of the tunnel or do they just rely on body language and “out” – I notice she looks at me, particularly for the turn -aways.>>

You were using go for the distance jump at the very beginning, which was appropriate: Go should mean stay on your line in extension. In the 2nd half of the session, you were using out and go somewhat interchangeably – towards and away – so I think you should save Go for the line straight/parallel to you and use out for the turn aways after the tunnel exit. Left and right will create turns that are generally too tight.

The next thing to add is saying the cues (go and out, depending on which direction it is) before she goes in the tunnel – so when she is maybe a meter before the tunnel, start you go or your out cue, and repeat it so she hears it before, during, and after the tunnel 🙂 so she doesn’t rely on body language (but of course you should still use your physical cues too to support the verbals :))

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Great job with this session, in terms of progressing from stationary to movement and adding the wing – all good! You were also really good about emphasizing getting the treats in the bowl, so her head position was good over the bar.

I noticed she was a little less snappy than usual, so the heat and bugs might have been an issue plus she might have been thinking very hard about going past the food dish 🙂 and organizing while facing you. So let the learning sink in for a day – then try it again and if she is faster with the sits, you can add more motion! Yay!

And after adding more motion, we will start fading the organizers. Fun times ahead!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Hope you are having a great vacation!

This was a really good session with 2 big takeaways:
– she is getting more powerful and centering herself really well over the jumps. She is no longer landing as short to the jumps and getting closer to a centered arc. Super!
– she has trouble organizing with power for bar 1 with the moving target, so we can isolate that for her! The other bar on jump 1 was at :06 and I think she was too close to the bar in her setup position (looks like she hit it on when she lifted her front feet up).

Two ways to proceed:
– with the stationary target, flatten then angles by another inch or so 🙂

– let’s isolate the takeoff on the moving target. There are two ways to do this. We can set her up close to just one jump, start dragging the target, then release. If she doesn’t touch the bar: BIG PARTY! If she does touch the bar, give her a low value treat like a cheerio 🙂 You can start with the bar really low to get success then built it up – when she can do it at 12 or 14 inches on one jump, we can add the moving target back to the zig zag grid. The other option is to use your plank: as you and Mo are moving to the plank, you can be dragging the target. Ask her to sit on the plank while the target is moving. That might be challenging! But it will get her thinking about her hind end 🙂

Great job here!!! Have fun!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I only did one direction because I was really just trying to NOT be so exciting on release… failed several times

Ha! You were really good!!

Wing to board:
He was totally on fire! When starting with the wing, he probably needed you to be standing in position near the jump like you did at 1:10 and sending to the wing, so you can be right there and not moving much to cue the sit, to get things rolling. When he did remember the game after the rep at 1:10 he was just about perfect! Then you were able to add more motion, with the reps at 2:01 and after that all looking really good. So on the next session, you can start the way you started at 1:10, then add more motion as he gets warmed up. If things go as well astray did here, you can move to the backside slices in the session after that.

His form on the zig zags looked good and also was consistent, which means he is feeling very comfy with it. He is also using his hind end better, and not rotating it. He was hilarious when you were done but he did one more LOL!! Since this went well, on the next session, start with the angle you used here for a warm up rep or two, then tighten it more. If he is fine with that: in the following session, open up the angle a bit and do the backsides 🙂

>>Not quite sure why that MM isn’t pulling his vision as much as I would expect! There seems to still be a fair amount of looking at me both on zig zag and the organization video above.

I think on the zig zags, you can click the MM sooner, as soon as you see his back feet hit the ground between 1 and 2. That will both mark the moment of organization and be nice & early so he doesn’t look at you.
I think with the organizers, he will look at you as a way to get into the sit (looking at the MM too much ended up with no sits LOL!). When we get to the fading, he will be looking forward more.

Great job! Let me know how the next sessions go!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
This was definitely a harder session for him! And that is fine, it is a really hard grid when it gets this flat. He was having some trouble sorting out how to do this independently, especially when he was on your right and had to shift away from you to get jump 1. For the next session, if he is on your right, have him on the other side of jump 2 so he is jumping to his left (towards you over 1) rather than to his right away from you over 1. And same if he is one your left: let him jump to his right over the first jump (towards you) rather than away from you to his right.

When you added handling, it definitely helped him out but it was still hard work with some added between jumps 2 and 3. So, on the next session, we can help him out by opening things up by maybe 1 inch between 1 and 2, and 2 inches between 2 and 3 so it is slightly less flat and he can do it more independently. You can Lead out and place the toy so he figures it out without you.
If he still thinks it is really hard, you can back chain it and start him in the middle, next to jump 2, where he would land from 1 and ask for jumps 2 and 3 only (with you at the end with the reward on the ground). If that goes well, you can start him at 1 and try for all 3 – I think he can do all that in 1 session.

>>Looks to me like the slip in the last video was due to him jumping while he was turning – following reps, he finished the turn and then loaded up to jump>>

Yes – he was going fast and didn’t quite get his hind end set up on that first rep. I was glad to see him make better decisions after that!

Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
It was a little hard to see from the angle, but I think he added a stride in between the bars on most reps (it looks like he had really nice bounces at 4:10, 5:14 and 6:04). Looking back to the previous session where he was bouncing more, we can try to replicate the distance between the bars to get the bouncing going again. I couldn’t quite tell here wha the distance was, but it is also possible that you can get the bounce form if you can be more on the line where the 2 wings meet, rather than on the line to the outer wing which presents a longer distance. He might not be able to fully see you between the uprights, but that is fine 🙂

He definitely liked the ball! And the toy and the ball both kept his head down, but I think because the type and placement was changing throughout the session, he was thinking more about where to look and where to go, so he was not thinking as much about the hind end form – that could be the other reason he was adding strides. So you can use the ball, but have it placed on the ground before you release him into the normal zig zags, or if you are doing backsides: hold his collar while you toss the ball to position, then send him to the backside to start the grid after the ball has fully landing and stopped rolling 🙂 Making the reinforcement ultra predictable will allow him to focus more on the form and less on where the toy might be. Let me know if that makes sense!

Nice work here! Fingers crossed you don’t get a ton of rain!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Well, there was no staying dry today but I think the rain is mostly stopped. Now it is just wind wind wind. Fingers crossed it ends SOON!

He is looking SNAPPY on those tight sits – note how he is tucking his hind end under him. I bet he has abs of steel right now!

I like how the MM is helping him to be straight and NOT turn his head up to you. Sure, there is a little bit of momma-looking but not too much, and your timing with the MM was really strong! Only one sorta-sit got clicked LOL!

Onwards to the bar! My only suggestion for when adding the bar is to move the MM around the wing a little more, so he can jump, land, and take one more stride to the MM.

Great job here!! Let me know how he does with the bar!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I felt slightly uncoordinated and not super sure where all my parts should be at any point in time.

All your parts LOL!!

If you were handling these as backside circle wraps without the sits, you would be cuing the backside by tucking into where the wing meets the bar (so he can see the wing) and facing forward – as he rounds the wing, you would continue going forward, no rotation to the landing spot.

So – the organizers version is handled the same way except more slowly, so he can get into the sit. You will show the wing, and stay in the position facing the direction you will be going after he lands – but let him get into the sit with you staying there (facing the takeoff spot). Then when he sits, you release and move forward as if handling the rest of the wrap (because you are indeed handling the rest of the wrap :))

You were doing a full post turn to face the landing side, which we can take out so you face forward the whole time – that way he learns to organize even with countermotion. Be sure you don’t block the wing – you were over helping by stepping past the wing, and he doesn’t need that 🙂 Your position on the last 2 reps were correct in terms of showing him the wing, now we can fade out the rotation.

Eventually we will add more of your motion to it, but for now you can stop in the position where the wing & bar meet til he sits.

He is doing really well with the organization side of it, so you can fade out feeding him in the sit position – instead, you can go to releasing then rewarding in the target bowl or tossing the reward like you were doing after 1:00.

Great job! Let me know if the ideas on where to put all your parts make sense :)
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>ps, have you read The Art Of Racing In The Rain?

I haven’t read it although I feel like today’s US Open is definitely a lot of racing in the rain!

She did really well with her organizers here! Super nice! She is getting stronger and stronger about looking forward especially as she jumps. You can leave the MM on the outer edge of the wing so she lands and comes around the wing for a stride or two, no need to put it on the harder angle that you had it on for the last few reps – she was confused about going past the organizer again 🙂

She lost form a bit on the last 2 reps (left leg off on the 2nd to last rep, right knee pushed out a little on the last rep) – my guess is it was just fatigue. These games are a lot more tiring than the look to use humans 🙂 So , limit to 4 reps on each side so she never gets into the fatigue zone and can maintain form.

Since she did so well here, you can move to the backside wraps! Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

The threadle wraps are hard indeed! When you faced her with your feet facing her (like a lap turn) she was able to threadle wrap but getting to the foot rotation on a full course is really hard. Ideally we want your feet to keep moving forward rather than rotate to her, which is what you did at :29! But she read it as a slice at :29 and 30 because you then turned your feet to the bar, which is the threadle slice cue. Threadles are tricky!

For the wraps, you can try to pull your shoulders and hand cue away from the line, towards the wall, to pul her in, then flip her back out while your feet keep moving forward. And to make threadle slices different, you can do what you did at :29 – moving forward and then stepping to the bar.

The Push wraps were super! The last one did look like a push wrap, you were tucked in behind the wing then moved forward the same way you would for the wrap, so she was correct. To get the German turn and slice, you can push to the backside as you move towards the center of the bar on the landing side, then slide away towards the slice exit wing.

Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! We are currently trying to outrun the rain here and get the outdoor rings finished before it rains. We are 90 minutes ahead of schedule… fingers crossed! The wind has really picked up….

>>I’ve been trying to think of how to change the setup to help him figure out the ZigZags starting off his right and after rewatching a bunch of the videos I wondered if I made the distance between the 2 jumps smaller if that would help so…. instead of wing in the middle I just used a couple of stanchions. I think it helped.

I think the setup worked really well! He did super well for 5 of the 6 reps, and the one rep with a question was fine too 🙂 It was a legit question LOL!

>>I should’ve stopped at 5 reps but just had to do one more – bad trainer, it was a bridge too far
>>I think I need to stop at 5 reps all the time – no matter what.>

I don’t think the number of reps was a problem – it was more that he needed to see the same setup several times instead of it changing each time. So it might be best to start with the setup he saw in the previous session, and tighten it once only for the session so he can find his rhythm and power.


>>Should/can I use this setup for both sides? Or should I stick with the “harder” setup with the wing in the middle for him when he’s coming off his left first?

The setup worked well, and to make the session efficient you can use it on both sides. You might want to do a slightly easier angle for the right side reps then make it a little harder for the left side reps, or only tackle on side per session.

>>Jumps are at 6″, seems like a good height for this?

Yes, I think that is a great height for him here.

>>What would you suggest for going forward from here…..do more off his right than his left for awhile as that’s the side he’s less comfortable on to help him get more comfortable? Or continue to work both sides about the same amount and just let them both progress at however they progress?>>

I would do an equal # of reps on each side, to keep him balanced because it is quite a workout! You can make the left side reps a little harder in terms of the angles and the right side reps a little bit easier.

>>Thoughts on how often….I’m kinda thinking 2 sessions of 5 reps with a break in between – and I’m going to count! and stop! 2 or 3 times a week.>>

So approximately 10 reps, 2 or 3 times a week? That should be great, unless he is doing a lot of other jumping. We just don’t want to put too much jumping into his world 🙂

>>And too funny but I was thinking the same thing about the Organizers to the Plank……he’s really getting focused on looking at my hand – the POWER of the placement of reward especially with a foodie >>

Poor starving dog haha! Plus, they spend much of their lives looking at our hands for food, so it is pretty natural 🙂

>>I played with this some yesterday and really had to break all the pieces down. No food/hand, he couldn’t stop on the platform, so put the MM right in front of the platform to get the stop and then slowly worked it around the wing a little bit. Didn’t even try to add any speed…… Plan to see how he does later today with ability to stop on the platform with no speed coming in and if that’s good then we’ll give it try with the wing. Video later, I hope>>

You can also start with the food in your hand, then let him see you drop it in the bowl for a rep or two or 3. Then you can start with it in the bowl, and use hand cues as if you are holding treats to get the sit. That might brea it down and help him get the sit but look at the magical cookie bowl.

Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
This went really well! I am happy with how well she is getting into the sit and waiting for release. Good girl!
Her head position was better when the cookie was already in the bowl on a few reps, rather than waiting for you to drop it into the bowl 🙂 So you can have it already in the bowl before you start each rep. That way you can release sooner: as soon as she gets into the sit, you can release her to come over the bar and get the cookie in the bowl. You can be moving the whole time, slowly, even if you get past the reward bowl 🙂

You can also add tugging in between reps, to get more arousal – that challenges her to work the skill even when she is a bit wilder 🙂

Based on how well she did here – if the next session goes well too, with more of your motion, you can add in the backside slices too!

Great job 🙂
Tracy

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