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  • in reply to: Tina and Julee #70626
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning! This session went really well, she had a ton of success. YAY!!

    I will keep bugging you to say the right or left 3 or 4 times before letting her go to start moving on the easier rep – it is good mechanics to rehearse that will set you up for more good mechanics when things get harder.

    She did really well from the neutral position – you had the verbals going then a little bit of body help (lean), which is good to help her be very successful! NICE!!!! You will be able to fade out the subtle physical help and she can get it on pure verbals.

    >The collar holding wasn’t the norm>

    Pulling back on the collar might be more of a habit than you realize (we all have these habits floating around in mechanics). It was happening a bit here too, causing her front feet to lift up off the ground when she was at your side. You were pulling back and bending your elbow which contributes to this, so keep your arm straight/elbow locked (you probably need to lean over a little) and don’t pull back – we don’t need her to pull forward all on this as it changes the weight shift. You can go to one finger holding the collar because that makes it harder to accidentally pull back and up.

    She looks ready for you to add in having her turn away from you on the left and right verbals: you standing in front of one of the bars, and saying the word that sends her to the other side, versus saying the words that cues her to take the bar in front of you and turn away.

    Great job here!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Laura Rose and Zest #70625
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    He was a really good boy ignoring the neighbor dog!

    >’m feeling good about his threshold and teamwork in these! He seems to be doing well? No screaming or throwing behaviors.>

    I think he is doing great 🙂 And the teamwork has immediately improved – you two looked relaxed and like you are working together. You both have some space to breathe and reset in the session while he is noodling with the toy, which makes the session smoother and happier in general. I really love how he is getting more relaxed about the toy play. Note that after the last rep on the jumps, he tugged with you, took the toy to the side for a little play when you let go… but then stopped to watch you. Then he brought the toy to you when asked and lined up for the next rep. I mean, that is a small detail which makes a huge difference.

    >I did 6’ between jumps and raised the second bar 4” on this one. I missed the note about moving the toy until after we did this session so I left it still again!>

    I think he looks great here! The jumping coordination looks good and the stays look good (great job rewarding it at the end – it was a happy surprise and that is very motivating for dogs!)
    So when you revisit this again, adding the moving target will be good and if he is happy with that, we raise the bar on jump 2 again (another 2 inches). We are adding more to this skill on Tuesday, which will add more variety too.

    Great job here!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Debbie and Callan (Border Collie) Max Pup Extended #70624
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    >You see things I never noticed. I did not see the extra small steps he was taking to keep his balance because he found it slippery.>

    Video is really helpful because I can compare the different footings to his previous videos too!

    
>I see at the 1:17 mark as you said I did not give him enough of a verbal, or physical turning cue before the jump before. I did give him his verbal soft turn cue but my body overrode it. And he did take the line I showed him.>

    With the big layering training we do, the dogs are generally trained to stay on the big line unless otherwise notified LOL!!! So it was a good off course moment 🙂 When there is a lot of forward motion, I have found that the brake arm helps me support the soft turn verbal when motion might send the dog long onto a big line.

    
> I was way too late as he did jump that in extension right to the tunnel! Would you suggest using a brake arm approaching 3 to help with collecting?>

    Yes, that will help! And also, starting the cues sooner: no later than landing of 2. He has a nice big stride, so his decision on how to jump 3 is being made as he is landing from 2. So if you start the cues for 3 as he is in the air over 2, he will see them when he lands and have an easy time processing them.

    >we have a workshop in a dirt floor horse arena and a fun trial on turf in a familiar venue. >

    FUN!! I am jealous of all your fun trial opportunities, what a great thing for young dogs!

    > Still getting his striding on his running AFrame, decided he didn’t need to run down today, jump from the red! 🤦‍♀️ >

    He might have felt it was faster LOL!!! Ah, young dogs LOL!!!

    > As you say, good one day, not so good the next, adolescent dog 🤷‍♀️. >

    Right! Teenagers… LOL!! But I agree, he is totally fun and doing GREAT!

Tracy

    in reply to: Mary Ann & Knight – We are back #70623
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!
    Sounds like things are moving forward really well (plus the weather is probably improving too, which helps with conditioning too!)

    >Harmony only found one area around the left shoulder that was sore. She believes it was just residual from the chiro appt.>

    This is something to keep an eye on: residual soreness. He shouldn’t be sore from an adjustment 2 days later, so we want to keep an eye on if the adjustments are big adjustments (and why those would be needed) or if something else is happening. For now, it is just something to track: when the soreness is found, relative to agility or chiro, etc.

    Keep me posted on how he does with the fitness stuff! Did they give you a calendar of how much to do each day? I found that always helped me not do too much or too little 🙂

    Tracy

    in reply to: Jean-Maria & Venture (Cocker Spaniel) #70622
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    >Venture only runs on grass at home or at this location for his weekend lesson. Due to rain, we haven’t been working in the yard. When we lowered the jumps to 12″, he stopped avoiding them. >

    OK this is good then, making it sound more like the environment and less of a physical issue. You can keep bars at 12 til he is more comfortable, then put a few at 14” and gradually put all at 14”… then a few at 16”, working up to all at 16”.

    >He is very distracted working outside at this location – couple of horses on one side of the fence and a husky dog that he would really like to play with in the back yard next door.>

    That is definitely distracting, along with all the normal outdoor distractions. The plus side to this is that it should make tria environments seem easier!

    >He saw the chiropractor just last week – right rear foot seemed sore (as I typed this, thinking might need an exam for this) and L1 was out – common in his line, joys of long backed dogs. I think I will also see if we can catch up with massage therapist this weekend to see if something is tight.>

    Definitely follow up on that right rear to see if there is anything. Have you ever done skin-rolling with him? I have absolutely zero skills when it comes to massaging my dogs, so they have me do skin rolling. This is gently lifting the skin up and rolling down their back and sides, rolling the skin between my thumb and fingers. The dogs love it and it is a great warm up – plus I can feel where they are tight because it will feel literally tight (or even a bit crunchy!)

    >Ven is running Preferred 12″ this weekend for his AKC debut. I chose that because I expect his attention to be split in a new place. Thinking I should keep him at 12″ for a few more trials – planning 2 ASCA trials and 2 AKC trials over the next couple months to gain experience running in trial environment and in new locations.>

    I think this is a smart plan (and it is exactly what I do with my dogs too :)) And I left Hot Sauce in the 12” (rather than 16” regular) preferred division because it worked better for her brain and body.

    Keep me posted on the weekend! Have fun!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Jean-Maria & Venture (Cocker Spaniel) #70603
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    >Yesterday we had a lesson that included running a course outside on grass. Venture was avoiding all the jumps set at 16″. >

    Hmmm – to start figuring this out, what is his current 16″ experience including in new locations (or outdoors on grass?) How did he do on 12″ jumps?

    >I haven’t found anything physically wrong with him

    Out of curiosity, what have you had checked? The things to start to look at would be patellas (exam where he is lying on his side, so he can’t use strength to lock his knees :)) spine/hip rads, soft tissue soreness in the psoas or shoulders. How if the tick situation in your area? Tick illness can also cause jump avoidance.

    >but it was quite warm, about 80.>

    That could certainly be a factor, especially at this time of year when he is not heat acclimated. It will be no problem in August!

    > I’m starting to wonder if asking him to jump a full inch above his height at the withers is realistic for a breed that carries a lot of bone/weight. He’s 27 pounds and right at 15″ at the withers. Am I overthinking this?>

    I think a 15″, 27lb dog can jump 16″ successfully and if he is not, we can try to figure out why. But also, you can build up confidence and get lots of experience on him at 12″ too! And if he spends is whole career in 12″? Perfect! Plenty of great competition and title opportunities there, so it is a winning situation for sure!

    Let me know what you think!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Mary Ann & Knight – We are back #70602
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!
    It sounds like he had a grand time in class 🙂 You might have to block off the weaves/contacts til he is 100% ready for them LOL! It will be good to see how he feels to Harmony when she sees him! Keep me posted!!!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Kristin and Reacher (Min. Schnauzer) #70601
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    >Had an interesting thing happen in class on Monday, where Reacher missed the weaves twice. He hasn’t messed up any weaves in quite some time and I’m not sure why. Not fretting, but it’s interesting. The video was really far away so I zoomed in in editing so it’s pretty hard to see. I thought maybe it was the color of the poles blending in too much but I’m not sure. The entry was tucked pretty close to the wall back there but I’m not feeling that’s so much it either.>

    Yeah, it was odd for him! It could have been there was some visual clutter with the weaves near the wall? Have you done any skin rolling with him (gently lifting his skin and rolling down his back with your thumb and fingers)? That can tell you if he is tight anywhere. You have had weird weather lately and I have found that the sudden shifts from cold to warm to cold/ice/snow can make my dogs pretty tight.

    >The other part of the video is just some running to try to do our little test of speed. You’re welcome for the comedy relief of watching me run back and forth as well. 😂>

    OK that was pretty hilarious, you were running in full extension and he was kind of loping along LOL!! I think on the very last one, though, we got the closest to his full extension. You might need to do it as a long restrained recall, to great food or a fur toy? And we got a good view of him running hard on the line from :14-:18 on the video. He was in big extension there (and really fast!), so it would be interesting to see if you can get an at-home bunny chasing video to compare it to 🙂

    >but it’s the desire to go fast that’s missing in agility I think. I just wish he was a little more intense about it. But I’m still hoping that will come. >

    Agility has a lot of complexity and that requires a lot of thinking. For the dogs that we want to think MORE? We add more complexity in the form of turns, hard lines, etc. For the dogs we want to think LESS? We take out the complexity, making the puzzle easier to solve… so they can just feel the wind rushing past their ears as they race around the course.

    I don’t think he lacks desire to go fast, and I think he is plenty extended on the big lines. But he might also be thinking hard to solve the technical challenges (backside, threadles, etc etc) and that can cause dogs to go slower in order to find the right answers. So you can experiment with taking out the technical stuff and just let him rip! Approach everything like it is a speedstakes class: big fun lines and lots of blind crosses, etc. Not thinking, just fast 🙂 And then structure dictates the rest: you can see how his body naturally moves in extension, and get some stretching conditioning stuff going to give him more ‘reach’ in the front and rear. Length of spine and shoulder angulation plays a role in this and can increase speed because they cover ground more easily.

    Let me know what you think!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Chaia & Lu – Beyond #70600
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    >I wrapped her feet for the first time. I didn’t get her first turn on video because I forgot to press play. But here are the second and third turns. I wrapped her front feet only for her first turn. For the second turn I wrapped both front and rear feet. And then went back to front feet only for her third turn. The wraps on her front feet definitely showed wear so I think I’ll keep wrapping her front feet on these mats. I wasn’t sure if I should wrap the rear or not but they didn’t seem to have a much wear as the front wraps.>

    I think this went really well – she didn’t seem fussy about the wraps and she did really well finding her lines and turning too! Yay!

    For agility, I find that wrapping front feet helps with landing and wrapping back feet helps with the brakes needed to collect for turns… so I wrap both front and rear 🙂 The front feet generally will show more wear but the dogs do use the wrap on the back feet too.

    I think she did really well on these! The hardest part was the circle wrap on the first part of the video:

    At :24 – you did a super good job getting her committed to the backside wrap there! I think you left for the next line with a bit too much speed and not enough looking behind you at the landing spot to support her line, so she did not take the jump. For now, try to leave with less explosiveness and a lot of connection to the landing spot behind you: then throw her reward back to the landing spot. That can shift value to the bar, rather than having her follow you for the reward. And that will also make it so you can build up to running away explosively and without a ton of connection.

    At :36, we had an example of Lu being able to see ALL of your cues: you had converging pressure but she was still coming in, the nyou kept moving and pinged your shoulders towards her which pushed her away to the threadle wrap. Good girlie!

    At :48, you were blocking the backside wing a bit by facing forward/forward arm blocking connection. I think the TW cues also have a forward arm s she might have been confused about which cue it was.

    You had the wing more visible at 1:34 and 1:54, and on the rep at 1:54 you supported the commitment to the takeoff really well. She turned beautifully!!!

    When you tried getting the threadle wrap after it, it worked best in flow like at 2:01. When you did it just on the threadle wrap jump, it looks like you were blocking the line a bit and it made it look like you were cueing the front of the jump.

    The big line at the end looked really good!!! She seems to be finding her jumps really well on those big fast lines and not running past stuff. YAY!!!

    Great job here!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Tom and Coal ( 3 year old SP) Beyond #70599
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    >Then I started overthinking it – what was getting rewarded, passing the RC or the weave / tunnel performance. >

    I’d say both are being rewarded! Think of it a ‘passing the RC to do the tunnel/weave/etc’

    >Do I need to think of this as a chain, with ignoring the RC as just part of the chain? obstacle – ignore the RC – obstacle = reward.>

    Basically yes – technically more of a sequence, because each element is cued by your motion but it is all linked 🙂

    And also, I don’t want to risk having the lotus ball appear anywhere near the ring crew because that could tip over into enhancement learning where we accidentally pair the RC person with food… making the RC even more ‘visible’ to his brain. I’d rather have the weaves/tunnel/jumps more visible and the RC person fade into the background 🙂

    > I’ve committed to picking up a person who comes out from Manhattan by train and I’m too nice to tell her she’s on her own! >

    You are a good person to do that! So kind to help her out!!!!

    >The mat floor instructor has a hard time following my plan, she’s forever throwing in off script challenges that cause him to fail – doesn’t get incremental increases in difficulty so now I ask her to stay seated. >

    Good for you for figuring out how to get her to not create failure! You can add in keeping her seated, but maybe holding a bag of treats of something – incremental increases that you can control. Or having her remain seated behind a tunnel or something.

    >The turf facility instructor is great, but it’s another home base type of situation for Coal. You probably know her from UKI – she just had the trip from hell to Chicago. Drove NY to Chicago, senior non competing dog passed on day her knee blew out on day 2 and she had to withdraw from the balance.>

    Oh yes! That trip sounded like a horror for her 🙁 She is a really strong trainer/instructor and I bet she can help make home base feel more challenging too! Even practicing things that look easy will help him learn how to do it in harder places.

    Keep me posted!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Tina and Julee #70598
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!
    Hi!

    >If you notice I got one tiny black wrap strip on! Yay!>

    YAY!!! She seemed fine with it. Also, a gentle curve of the tunnel will help her find an easier line into it – having the tunnel straight here creates a 90 degree entry, which causes slipping at the entry). And remember not to lift her up as yo start the end… and don’t let her lift herself up – that also can cause slipping. So bend over and lock your elbow if you need to, to maintain 4 on the floor 🙂

    I agree that she is totally getting it, and she had a really nice balance between the left/right soft turns and the go lines! Nice!!!

    The hardest part for getting the tight turn was after the wrapping the wing on the straight line then needing her to turn right on the tunnel exit. Those right cues at 1:28 and 2:20, for example, were late so she exited a bit wide. You can definitely say the verbal sooner, but mainly give physical cues sooner. Ideally you can turn your shoulders when she is still a stride or two away from entering the tunnel but that is hard to do on that line – so you can even whip out a brake arm to help get the turn even though you are accelerating forward.

    Looking at the grids:

    > I hate her sit bc she tucks her fonts to her backs ( working on this on the day to day) and it’s literally all I can see.>

    Do you mean her front feet are too close to her back feet? On the sits here that were visible, she was doing a tuck sit (back moving forward). She couldn’t sit on the last rep at about 1:50, because your hand was pulling up on her collar and she felt it was weird/stressful. So yes, keep working on the tight sit without any splayed feet (maybe a roll back is better for her than a tuck, if that would keep her hind further from her front?) but also don’t make it an issue in front of a jump: holding her collar up or physically moving her position by lifting her neck (1:08) can add a negative feeling to sitting in front of a jump. I’d rather she learn to sort out her mechanics from a less-than-perfect sit, or get cookie-lured/hand touched into the right spot, than developing stress by trying to have a perfect sit in front of a jump with physical manipulation.

    She sorted out her mechanics well here! She was a little too far from jump 1 on the first rep so there was a tap of her front feet before takeoff. But the rest looked really good! We might give her a little more distance between the 2 jumps as we add height to bar 2: what is the distance here in the video?

    >I do believe she broke ahead of me almost every time.

    I think she was releasing as you opened your mouth to say the word perhaps, so you can mix in praise and also throwing rewards back to her, so mouth movement doesn’t anticipate the release 🙂

    Great job here!!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Diane and Max #70597
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    Another super nice session here! He did well on the single wrap versus tunnel. It seemed like it was harder for him to find the tunnel when passing the wing and without you moving. But he definitely figured it out by the end (and turning left as you mentioned) and it looked great! His right turns also looked good.

    Things were harder with the tunnel-to-wrap combo, but you did a great job helping him out – the wrap verbal sounded VERY different from the tunnel verbal and that makes a big difference for the dogs.

    Then on the other side, he nailed the tunnel-to-wrap the first time you tried it, with a nice tight turn! Yay!

    You can play with making it even crazier: tunnel then tunnel again – then the wrap. That will be fun and challenging! And you can do a FC on the wing wrap and send him back to the other side of the tunnel, I bet he would have fun with that.

    Great job!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Diane and Max #70596
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!
    This was a great session! It was just about perfect! Your connection was super clear throughout. He was strong with the turns and also when you cued the GO… he accelerated straight really well! And locked onto the wings perfectly too. Super!!
    There were only 2 spots were the verbal cues were spot on but the shoulder turn to the new line was a little late (the physical and verbal cues were on time on all the other reps, creating great turns and lines). Those 2 spots were the left at :33 (you can have an earlier shoulder turn so he sees it before entering the tunne) and at 1:08, where your right verbal cue was really good but you were accelerating forward so he exited a little wide.
    Compare to 1:17 where you had good verbal timing again and turned to the right turn line before he entered the tunnel, so his turn was even better there.

    Great job!!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Wendy and Grace #70593
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi! This was a good session!

    She did well with her stays overall! Sometimes she was a little too good, needing a couple of releases 🙂 but I think that will not be a problem in the future.

    Looking at her form: also looking good! She had strong forward focus on the toy at the beginning which really helps too. For setting up, the closer to the little stride regulator, the better. On the first rep (not including the one at the beginning where she broke her stay :)) – she was a little far from the regulator and her back feet hit it.

    On the next reps at :40 and :48, she was set up closer to the regulator and did not hit it. The distance looks pretty good, we can tweak it maybe a few centimeters wider but not more than that.

    At about 1:04 and after that, something was catching her attention so she was looking around and not jumping as well. Adding the thrown back cookies back for the stay was a great addition to the session , and the last rep was really good! She was set up a little far from the strider so she touched it, but overall her focus was strong.

    It is possible that a smaller stride regulator is ideal for her, maybe taking this blue one and slicing it in half, lengthwise, so she has something smaller to go over. She is really little so finding the sweet spot on the stride regulator will help! Her work on the bars looks really good 🙂

    Great job here!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Lora and Beat (Bippet) #70592
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    > “Jump” and “hup” don’t really make sense as tunnel verbals, so I’m going with “gee” and “haw”. Luckily “jump” is right and “hup” is left, so gee and haw weren’t that far of a leap to make!>

    Good point about jump and hup! And gee/haw are good options for the tunnel!

    > I didn’t really introduce these verbals on the minny Pinny, this is her first time hearing “gee” and being asked to turn out of a tunnel.>

    Since they are tunnel-only verbals, I don’t think you need it on the minny pinny – we can apply them directly to the tunnel and use reward placement to help her understand the turns.

    >Those first reps of just doing wraps to the tunnel, I think I need to remember to remove my hat. I noticed years ago that with that style hat it hides enough of the side of my face that from the dogs level they can’t even see my head turned to the side. Whoopsie!>

    Possibly! But also, having your arm back to her and running more forward will really help.

    At the beginning, I think you were having a bit of a champagne problem: she was going FAST FAST FAST so you were trying to out run her to get to the tunnel exit… but that created questions at :09 and :30 where more connection was needed to drive her to the tunnel.

    You might have been feeling the pressure of her speed (FUN!) which was causing you to look a bit forward/arm blocking connection, with sideways motion to try to get to the tunnel exit – since she couldn’t see the side info, she went with the direction of motion.

    Note the difference at :40 and later on at 1:50 where you made a big connection and moved on a line towards the tunnel entry, and she got it perfectly. Yay!

    Adding the soft turns:
    The timing of the verbal at :51 was good, but the physical cue was pretty forward-facing so she locked onto the wing there and a 1:00 (you can reward moments like that even with just a reset cookie, because there is a 99% chance it is handler-induced). Plus, that will bring her back to you so she doesn’t keep offering and you can reset to show the cues.

    With the turn verbals here: because they are new, physical cues and reward placement will help solidify them. You added decel which helped – you can also add shoulder turn to face the new line and even a brake arm (all before she goes into the tunnel, while she is till 6 feet or more away from entering it). Then you can toss (or place) the reward on the exit line. I think BWs are pretty verbal and you will see that you don’t have to rely on physical cues for long, they will be easy to fade and she will respond nicely to the verbals.

    I LOVED how she committed straight to the wing at 1:54 and you could easily do the circle wrap!

    >I did not mean for it to be a wrap away to the left (ski) I just said the wrong word (gosh this is going to be so hard!) >

    With all the verbals, it might seem silly, but give yourself a walk through on these baby dog games! That way you can slowly walk to make sure the verbals are correct… then run it and still make sure the verbals are correct… then add the dog back in 🙂 I used to have to video my walk throughs of these games without the pups then watch the video to make sure I had the verbals right. That helped me get it right for the pup, and made it more automatic for me 🙂

    Great job here!

    Tracy

Viewing 15 posts - 1,276 through 1,290 (of 19,035 total)