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Hi!
The countermotion on the circles wraps is really hard!! Arrow did best when you were still on what would be the landing side is a bar was there (like at :26, :38, 1:35), meaning there was a little less countermotion and you were more visible.
> except for a couple of wraps where Arrow balked – b/c I got my timing wrong, and I was rushing, I think.>
On those reps, you were driving forward more and faster, which is wrong or rushing – it is actually desirable! You were trying to get more to the takeoff side and not be as visible on the landing side. But at this stage of training, you can help support the commitment with connection shifting while you do that: as you drive forward, shift your connection to the landing spot (looking behind you and not at Arrow). You can also point to the landing spot with the arm closer to the wing, to help him see you look at it and point at it as you move forward.
On the reps where he had a question (:11, :45, 1:09, 1:23) you were either looking at him or looking ahead to the next wing, so I think the connection shifting and pointing back will definitely help!
The threadle wraps looked fabulous! Your connection was spot on – you did not look forward or ahead of him, you were locked onto him and (when he turned away) the landing spot on the other side of the wing. The other thing that helped was that you decelerated into the threadle wraps, and didn’t run forward again until he was committing to turning to the wing. That is 100% correct! That really helps with commitment and his turns were lovely too!
Well done!
Tracy
Hi!
> so I didn’t have to pull the tunnel bags back out>
Ha! I totally relate, tunnel bags are annoying LOL!!
This session went GREAT!!!! Most of it was perfect: FCs 1 then 2 wings, perfect. FCs on all 4 wings – perfect. Race track around 4 wings: perfect. 2 FCs to race track: perfect! Yay!!
There were a couple of questions sprinkled in:
At :15, I think you moved away really fast and that surprised him, so he came with you (but it is the only time it happened).
You did a spin at :23 and :33 rather than a FC, so he ended on the side of you that pointed to the race track wing on his line, so off he went! You hadn’t decelerated or shown the toy like you did at :28, so he was correct to stay on the line around the outside there. Good boy!
He took a different wing than the one you wanted at 1:10 – I think you were blocking the wing you wanted a bit, and then you looked at him and not behind you so he went to the red wing. The rest were very clear though and he had no questions.
The last rep of FC to race track to FC was great too!
For the next session, you can spread the wings out even more and that means you will run more too 🙂 which also means more deceleration needed to get him to turn on the wings for the FCs. He is ready for it!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Sends the clips! That sounds frustrating!!! (Training young dogs can alternate between glorious highs and big frustrating moments). It seems odd that she was going around 1. Going past 3 (after the tunnel) seems less odd, so the plan was to do a big turn cue before she entered the tunnel. But spending timing getting 1 and 2 made that harder, I bet. Send the clips and either we will see something to tweak or we can trash them and try again. I feel the pain of sometimes just having a poopy session!
T
Hi!
>Yes, I have loved teaching weaves ever since a friend showed me how 2×2’s work. In the early 2000’s, she came home from Susan Garrett’s and used her fingers to demonstrate how to start with a “tunnel” and rotate the sets-of-two in order to develop the weaving motion. I was SO EXCITED. My previous dog was taught on channels and never totally understood. All subsequent dogs have been taught with 2×2’s>
That is so cool!! I didn’t know you used 2x2s – it is a pretty genius concept. Funny story: SG was developing the concept when I was an apprentice – I have strong memory of her and Mary Ellen Barry and a couple of other big names discussing & planning it in the back room of a facility in Philadelphia, using plastic knives sticking out of a block of Philadelphia cream cheese. I have never looked at cream cheese the same way again LOL!
Looking at the video:
>Enzo
Well first, once I reminded Enzo that “Dig” meant wrap a jump (not just U-turn to the right), I was very happy with pop out #2.>I think he was also reading the direction of your shoulders there:
at :09, you were closer to the red jump and by using the left arm high to point, your shoulders and feet were turned to the line to the red jump.Compare to :21, where you were in basically the same spot but had a lower arm and more connection so your shoulders/feet faced the wrap jump better. – that, plus an extra step as he entered the tunnel go more commitment.
You can get even more commitment with less arm – as he exits the tunnel, keep the dog side arm lower and further back so you can use it to help send him to the jump – that will also keep your feet and shoulders facing the correct jump. You did this “less arm at the start of the send” approach on the beginning of the next sequence (:31 – :33) and it worked beautifully. Your arm started back at his nose and moved with him during the send, rather than already being ahead of him and up in the air.
The rest looked really strong! The FC on 6 with the earlier rotation and great connection at :26 set up a lovely ending!
>So happy, in fact, that I added pop out #3 on the fly. That was not the best plan, since I tried to get down for a FC between 4 and 5 (disconnect, skipped #3, not going to make it anyway).>
Yes – 1-2 was great then he was not sure which side to be on for 3-4. But it is great to seeing you running hard enough to disconnect!
On the second rep you flipped him away to 2 and I think that worked better than the send then post turn of reps 1 and 3, in terms of you getting ahead again for 3-4-5 and for him finding 3 very easily
>I think it is interesting that he totally knows he is going to “wrap” #5 but chooses to slice, land, turn.>
I see what you mean there! Looking at it in slow motion, I think he is asking how much of a wrap collection you want – there is a little extra forward motion into it and that is making your feet late to turn, so he is a little wide. You can play with decelerating sooner, sending him past you with decelerated cues, and as soon as he passes you feet: turn them to the new line. That should get the collection on the takeoff side of the jump.
>Casper was pretty funny but he caught on. I included a few “good” ones.>
These were definitely good!! You can add more of your motion, like walking through a serp and asking him to sit while you are still slowly moving, then releasing him to take the jump. And you can send him to the backside and into the plank to sit, while you do crosses or serp too! And if that goes well, you can raise the bar.
> ALSO, I realized he is quite weak in his core, so I’m starting the sit to sit-pretty exercise. Not sure why he doesn’t know it. Previous dogs have known: sit/sit-pretty/up/and back down under control. All while staring at a cookie, of course!!>
The PT vets have been discouraging the sit pretty lately, as they feel it has too much spinal compression. My PT vet has replaced it with down to stand to down with no foot movement (at first) and then when that is easy: down to stand to down to stand while I am holding one of the dog’s front feet up in the air. That is VERY hard! And of course pop back sits can mix in: stand – sit – stand – down, etc,
>Today’s weave challenge was dog weaves north while handler walks south. I have actually used something very like this in a trial and I really want to have it. We have a pretty good beginning. On the last rep, he shocked me by being successful even though I was holding the toy instead of having it planted ahead.>
That was awesome, especially the last rep when the toy was in your hand and not on the ground. AMAZING!!!
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>Another session I thought went very well, other than nearly breaking herself at the end>
I agree, this went great! She was fast AND tight on the turns, thanks to your connection, position on the line, and deceleration into the turns. Click/treat for you both!
And yes, she had a little fall-on-your-face moment but I think that was her hashing out the mechanics of these turns having deceleration followed by big acceleration. That is why I still ask the pups to do this on wings (less chance to break themselves as we handle)!
The FCs and spins at the beginning were lovely!
When adding the circle wraps:
>I was especially impressed with her practically fixing herself on the wrap that she pulled off of. I didn’t do much other than shift my gaze back to the wing (where I should have been looking any way) and she was like “oh yeah, that”. Didn’t have to show any motion back towards the wing, bit of a big girl moment in my eyes.>
Yes! She was SO GOOD!!!
Also yes – the connection shifting back to the ‘landing’ spot really helps with commitment at tis stage of training. You did that on all the other reps and she was pretty perfect!
As you ramp up this circle wrap skill (because she has a future in UKI where she will see these circle wraps), you can add in the game from CAMP where you move through the circle wraps kind of slowly but *without* connection and throw the reward back behind you to solidify commitment as we strip away the connection shift to landing.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Ha! Yes, there was a bit of freestyle happening but it is still good practice for handling!
On the first couple of reps, you did a FC on the tunnel exit – that would actually work better as a blind, so it can be finished sooner and he can get right on the line. He had to wait to get past you to the wing as you were finishing the FC there.
When you were going from the wing back to the original tunnel entry, try it it as a spin instead of a post turn, both to work the spin skill and tighten the turn.
On the FC at :25, :33 – he was committing really well, nice connection from you too! Add in deceleration so you can both cue the turn sooner and power out of the FC sooner. You were running then rotating, so the momentum caused an extra step so you could plant your foot to turn. On a jump, that changes the cue timing and could lead to a wider turn. So deceleration will help you cue the turn and rotate to move away, all before he gets to the wing (or jump when it is a jump).
Nice work here!
TracyOMG these runs were SO NICE!!! Bummer about the bars in what were otherwise perfect runs.
I put them on a big screen and played them in slow motion: I don’t think you were late! On both bars (:32 in video 1 and :38 in video 2) you looked forward and rapidly accelerated as she was taking off – towards the end of the course where you were getting ready for the big ending line. The rest of the run was pretty connected and controlled in terms of steady motion over the bars (accelerations happenings at contacts/tunnels/weaves). So really emphasize the connection and steady motion (no sudden changes) because the smaller distances in AKC don’t allow for a lot of room for adjustment if she sees a sudden change.
Keep me posted on how the rest of the runs go!
Tracy
Good morning!
The blind cross run at the beginning looked great!
Bar down at :15 – his starting spot was too close, he didn’t have enough room to power out of the stay. The bar after the tunnel there was probably because you were undecided about stopping or continuing 🙂
He was further back at :30 and after that, and had no trouble clearing the bar on jump 1 🙂
>I tried both with the toy in my pocket and in my hands and I don’t think it made a huge difference!
I don’t think the toy in hand or pocket made a difference, he was a super good boy!!!The toy falling at 1:05 was great because it rewarded a nice jumping effort! It might have been accidental but we can say it was a brilliant reward placement 🙂
>I think I was late every time and he took the bar lol.>
Yes, it is really hard to get a good FC on this particular setup because it is hard to slow down to start it then finish it all before he takes off for 4 (I think I am late with them too in the demo video LOL!).
The reason that the BC is better than the FC here is because the BC can be finished earlier because there is no need to slow down or rotate – that allows him to see the next line sooner and it allows you to set up the turn on 5 and 6. With the FC being harder to get on time, the info for 5 is delayed and then 6 is delayed.
So definitely choose BCs in this type of setup: FCs are not as useful here for sure!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Please ignore the bucket – there was a huge ant bed there! When is summer going to be over??!!!>
OMG!!! For real, this has been a hard summer. We have 60 degree temperatures coming in tomorrow for about 24 hours and I am VERY EXCITED LOL!!!! I hope your area gets some relief too.
The tandem turn session went great! She is really paying attention to the outside arm as part of the cue – because she is responding to it so nicely, you don’t have to turn your feet away from the wing as much.
For example, in spots like :05-:06, :23, :43 and 1:26 when you kept your feet pretty parallel to the line you wanted her to get on to get to the correct side of the wing
Compare to spots like :33-:35 and :52-:53 when you stepped back away from the line, and she almost turned away too much!
That is good to know – to get the tandems, you can give her enough room to get to the correct side of the wing but you don’t need to pull her off of it the line a lot because her response to your hand cue is really excellent!
Great job! You can try the threadle wraps now, where you keep moving forward past the wing.
Tracy
Good morning!
The GO and the right turns (wrap on the jump and turn on the tunnel exit) looked really strong!
>She threw in a bonus weave from a soft turn out of the tunnel so I took advantage of that.>
That was great! So fun!
>We started on the dogwalk obstacle which went fine till we tried a left wrap cue>
I think a couple of things were happening here:
On the first left wrap at :34, there was no GO cue to get extension on the tunnel exit, then when she looked back to ask the question, she saw the high arm which turned your shoulders to the backside. When you got the right wrap really well at :12, you had given her a strong GO! That got her extended on the tunnel exit which helped her see the jump.
The other thing happening on the left turns might be that she might also having been showing a side-preference: she seems to be right-handed 🤣😂 When she had a question here at the end, she would offer a right turn instead of a left turn. This is useful info! If left turns are harder, then you will want to break that side down and be closer for now to convince her to turn left (and reward it).
The first part of that would also include lots of GO reps when she is on your right side: she will be on a left lead for those, which is the first step to convincing her to turn left when you cue the harder turns.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Great job with this! I always find this walk-versus-run to be really hard with young dogs but I think this went really well. it gets easier as the youngsters get more experienced.
>I was having a hard time even knowing how to handle the #4 jump because of the way she usually blasts out of tunnels with this kind of set up. However that was probably the best part of the whole run is that she actually turned lol.>
The turn on 4 is a definite decision-point! I turned left (wrap) there based on it being a better line to 5. It looks like your set up had 5 a little further over so it is possible that the slice to the right was better, as long as it didn’t open up the backside of 5 instead of the front.
Leading out by positioning yourself already at 4 was smart 🙂 because she can send 1-2-3 then you are already there for 4-5! And she turned really well, good girl!!!!
And specifically for Lu, in terms of planning – there is a lot of acceleration on the line to the 6 tunnel, so using a turn cue to get her to see 7 can really help. It will feel more exaggerated for now, but that is fine because as she gains experience you can exaggerate it less and less, trusting her to find the jump more independently.
Comparing the walk to the run:
The opening looked great and pretty identical walk-to-run. Super!
Jump 4 – on the run, you had to stay there a bit longer to get commitment – nice job staying connected!
>I watched my first attempt and thought I had lost exit line connection on #4. So tried to exaggerate it for the next attempt and did not go well.>
It was more of a motion question than a connection question:
When you started moving to 5, she was still adjusting her take off spot at 4 (had not yet really committed to a line) so she read your motion (correctly) as a rear cross, good girlie!
Excellent job trying to stay in motion and keep going – that is key to trial success! You were a little in her way, so she went to the backside of 5.
On the 2nd run, you put a lot of pressure on the takeoff spot of 4 which created a left turn, plus the quick movement made it an extended left turn so she went to 1 to turn left.
That pressure caused you to block the landing line you wanted, so you can be more upright and moving/indicating to the slice landing spot so the line is clear – you can indicate the slice line by pointing to the slice landing spot and looking at it, as you move away forward from the wing.
You showed it to her as a FC at :11 and she did well! It can also be a throwback where you indicate that slice line then do a BC on the exit.
She had pretty tight turn at :11 and the line to 5 still read as a backside line. So two options there: don’t exit 4 with her on your left side – you can exit with her on your right side to get a tighter line to the front of 5, delaying the blind to your left until after she is on the line. Or, keep her on your right and RC takeoff of 5. She can work the 6-7-8 line at a distance with no problem.
For the tunnel exit at 6-7 – yes, Lu said she did need a turn cue before it. Also, things being a little sideways can cause youngsters to watch more and flank lines a bit, so that seemed to play in here too. She was organizing nicely for the jumps that were clear, so running past stuff seemed to be more of a question about which line to take. So while she is still 6 feet or more away from entering the tunnel, you can give a big loud verbal and 2 hands so she turns to find the 7 jump.
Nice work here!!!
TracyGreat to see Enzo in action!!! He seemed happy to be back doing agility 🙂
Both runs looked really good – we can tighten up a couple of turns:
On both runs, you can use a wrap verbal on 2 to get a tighter turn. When you are keeping him on your right, you can have 2 hands raised as part of the cue (and also use his distance skills to put yourself further up the line near the tunnel – that will help tighten the turn and make the flip easier).
When you were doing the FC to put him on your left, you can send him to 2 while positioning yourself closer to the tunnel entry and even as far up the tunnel towards the exit as you think he will still commit to 2. It makes it easier to get 3 and will naturally set up a better turn on 2 and get you even further ahead.
>His flip was very wide>
I think he was surprised by it – you started it just before he exited the tunnel, so you can try moving up the timing so he sees it before he enters the tunnel. Another thing to try is using the outside arm too – if the low inside arm is not a big enough visual coming out of a straight tunnel, the outside arm being used with it can really catch his attention.
>I was LATE with the “left” cue on the second to last jump.>
Yes – the left cues can begin as soon as he is exiting the jump after the tunnel, on the flip or on the backside wrap. You had some extra verbals in there (like Go and Jump) which I don’t think he needs.
>Then there are the two best examples of Casper doing the organized front wrap.>
This is looking good!!!! You can add a little challenge by releasing as soon as his butt hits the sit 🙂 And you can also be slowly moving the whole time, walking though the FC even before you release him. Let me know how he is doing with the slice angles with this skill!
>Finally some weave training with Casper. This is in here just for fun – we like to train weaves. We are working on “go left to weave right”. Casper is starting to develop some mad weaving skills!>
OMG! He is doing so well, plus he seems to really really love the weave challenges! You have alway been excellent with your weave training, so I am not surprised that Casper is also becoming a rockstar weaver. Yay! In the next set of challenges, I have a set of weave challenges coming – I think it will be great to add to Casper’s toolbox!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
This session went really well, her commitment was no problem at all! And when you asked for a tunnel turn? She was perfect. Happy dance!!!A couple of ideas for adding challenge:
The visual blockers on either side of the tunnel will change her processing, so definitely add in the wings extending from each side of the center of the tunnel as if it was a dog walk plank. And if that is easy, you can put the tunnel under the actual dog walk 🙂
You can also let her see you slam on the brakes while still cueing the GO to the jumps and weaves: as she is approaching the tunnel, you can keep using your verbals but stop your motion abruptly – that challenges her to process verbals to override motion.
For the jump – you can sometimes use the GO and sometimes mix in a turn cue on the jump, like a wrap verbal. That is HARD but great for distance work too!
Nice job here!
TracyGood morning!
I know you have been with us working behind the scenes!! And the heat has just been absolutely brutal. UGH!!!
>feel like I’m still in class with you with the Teeter & Weaves classes! >
Perfect! And I am glad you are pushing yourself to get those obstacles ring-ready. She is ring-ready in every other way, so finishing up the weaves and contacts will make for fun trialing when the summer heat goes away.
>We did a lot of practice with forward focus & lateral starts. She is getting it and it is a great skill. I’m going to try to do the independent obstacle skills for the rest of CAMP to gain more skills.>
This is a great choice for Bazinga and for Frankie too! The independent skills are becoming really important in AKC and will also make layering easier when that becomes a more popular AKC skill too.
>We are getting there with the teeter and are almost ready to start the last package. She has loved every bit of it. I think she is a thrill-seeker! I>
Ha! That sounds like her LOL!!!!
> don’t want to lump it and my teeter board is homemade from wood and has a pretty strong whip, so I want to make sure she knows what to expect once the drop is from high.>
You can change the movement and speed of your teeter a little by attaching small weights to the underside on either end (or both ends). A small light weight (like a spoon) and some duct tape can make things feel different for her. And she might be ready for a Teeter Tour where you go visit as many different teeters as possible. Of all the obstacles in agility, teeters vary the most – so getting her exposed to the Max200, Clip&Go, MADAgility, Galican, etc teeters will help. I do a teeter tour and just play end games on each new teeter at first to get the pups comfy.
>We have 12 weaves!!! We have 6 weaves not at home! We did the 6 weaves in FEO at a trial!!! EEEK!>
YAY!!! That happened pretty quickly!!! Well done!
Her FEO run looked great! She got into the weaves and looked great, then she looked surprised at the commotion (“Of course I am brilliant, hoooomans”) hahaha and the rest of the run looked awesome! You can mix in getting the toy involved so you don’t put too much value on the jump *after* the weave which could lead to popping out.
Great job here!!!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Am at a 4 day show and feel off with both Roux and my experienced dog. Adjusting to two dogs running and each runs differently is seemingly difficult for me. Trying not to be discouraged.>
That is definitely the hardest part of bringing a young dog into trialing! It is a hard adjustment back and forth between dogs.
You can consider easing into running both of them by entering them in different classes so that you only focus on one for each class – your experienced dog can do Premier, for example, and Roux and do regular Standard and JWW. And then flip the next day. Then enter them both in one of the simpler classes like T2B where you run them both. That way even though they each run fewer classes, you will have more success and you won’t be frustrated!
I have 5 dogs that currently run and they are all different – so I limit which ones get entered in which classes, in order to retain my sanity LOL!! At some point I will enter all 5 in the same classes, but I need more practice for myself before I do that.
And the other prep thing you can do is walk the course, then run them back to back on at least part of it – give yourself one run for each, not a work session, so you are feeling the differences in the rhythm and needs of each.
At trials (and at home) – I think the main thing to emphasize is your connection. If the connection is a bit wobbly, you will get errors with both dogs. But if connection is clear – you will either handle perfectly to plan or you will easily fix any bobbles before they become faults.
I mention the connection because it is what caused the error here in your first run, and also connection is almost always responsible for fault at trials: without connection, the dogs don’t know where to go so we get faults. Feel free to send me the trial runs, especially the ones that feel “off” and we can test that theory. And if it is NOT a connection question, we can figure out what it is and then make the quick fix!
Looking at the video:
The shape of the walk through was really good in terms of your plan, and the speed of it was really good! I could tell what your plan was.
But the place to add emphasis is in the connection. You were looking ahead at the obstacles for the walk through, which means the connection will be used for the first time during the actual run… which also means there is a strong likelihood of a break in connection leading to an error, especially on the important parts like sends and side changes and serps/threadles.
On the run, connection broke at exit of tunnel 3 on the send to 4 at 1:15 – you looked ahead at the obstacles which turned your shoulders to the weaves so she never got a cue to take 4.
On the other runs, you had great connection there but for trials, we want that very first run to have the clear connection.
Getting across the ring from 4 to 7:
You can send to 4 from further away to get the FC you planned (more like what you did at 2:40 and 3:30) and another option is to use the big send to 4 then do a BC 5-6 to get 7.7-8-9-10 went really well the first time through there. You had too much convergence into the line got the backside at 8 on the 2nd run – the threadle wrap is definitely the correct plan there. She hit the bar due to late cues. That is a spot to keep going so you are constantly thinking on your feet and maintaining the plan and connection no matter what happens. This will help both dogs when you are trialing them.
Super nice blind to 11! Then the line from the tunnel to the weaves to the DW looked great!
Your work on verbals really shone through at 3:10 on the backside after the dog walk – you were pretty far and already turning, and she adjusted her line to get it based on the verbal. YAY!
Layering the tunnel on the ending line – it pull her in off the last jump a bit, so you can plan an outside arm there.
So overall – I will keep bugging you about working the connection in during walk throughs. The main connection points to work on are:
– start line releases
– sends
– tunnel exits & weave exits
– Exits of crosses (looking back at her)
– Any backside/threadle/serpy stuffIf you are running a line near her, connection might not be as critical – so looking for the critical connection points and working them in the walk through will make a massive difference!!
When training on your own, doing this at Roux-speed will help. In a trial with 50 other people in the walk through, doing it at Roux-speed is pretty impossible but you have been practicing at her speed. So, trial walk throughs can be spent emphasizing the connection points for both dogs.
Nice work here! Let me know how the rest of the trial weekend goes!
Tracy
