[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Yes, there are a lot of words on this one 🙂
Jump 2 should be a backside, which is probably why it felt so difficult.
To get it as a front side with the blind, just use a little more deceleration and stay more on the front side of it to get tons of collection. I think he was reading the blind really well, especially the last one at :58!!!
To get the push to 5 more easily, use Nuptse’s distance skills by sending him to 3 and 4 so you can meet him at the exit if tunnel 4 and use connection and position to show the 5 backside. You did more of this at 1:02 but you can use the distance sends even more so you are there more easily.
On the 8-9-10-11 line, you took the wrap lines – it worked but it is the longer path which also means slower and more difficult for him. Something to try on this is the slice path over 9, turning him to his left and doing the 270 to 10 – that is harder for you LOL! But easier and faster for him 🙂 A blind cross (or front) between the 8 tunnel and 9 jump will get you there in time to send to 10 from your right side.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

One of the things to play with is timing as you drive in and out of the lines – it is such a delicate balance! I think the line you drove 1-2-3-4 was really strong – and the spin at 4 can start sooner. He made a takeoff decision at :13 before you had started the decel and rotation, so he had to adjust after landing there. Start deceling when he has exited the tunnel so you care rotating before he has arrived at the jump. I think the timing was better on the 2nd run but he was also melting from the heat a bit. In crazy temps, I am either out there at dawn to get more than 1 rep, or I do one rep and give the dog a long break so they don’t melt 🙂
You got really quiet after tunnel #5 on the first rep so he went into handler focus: slowed down on the tunnel exit and missed 8. You talked to him more on the 2nd run and supported more, and that helped. He doesn’t like quiet 🙂

Nice work Fingers crossed for cooler weather!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

>> To answer your question, I do 1 or 2 FEO runs every trial she is entered in and we always use a toy as a reward. She goes crazy, she gets so fast and her eyes get all crazy it’s so fun to see!! I had fixed her weaves this way but they are getting iffy again. I have only used the toy as a reward on the start line twice. It feels very clumsy I don’t think I’m doing it quite right.>>

I think maybe the gap between the FEO and real runs is that maybe she doesn’t really understand where the reward is and how to work without it present, in that environment. During your FEO runs, is the toy in your hand the whole time? If so, that is where we start: with the games where she learns to run and play without the toy in your hand. That starts with one simple trick and over time, builds up to course running. Does she tug on her leash? That is the easiest way to get her to understand the fun of running in trials without a toy present.

On the video – entering the gate and rewarding engagement is an excellent first start! This is why leash tugging would be great – you could reward her with the cue to tug on the leash. To help transition this to trials, I would also play this with the toy(s) you use for FEO runs. I know AKC has some rules about the toy not leaving your hand and that is limiting, so to truly make the transition you should make a few side trips to UKI trials where the toy rules are less restrictive.
Keep building this game in different environments! I also play this game as an NFC (UKI) game – in and out of the gate (the judges allow it with a toy) and also a lot of UKI trials have a food reward box where you can use food like you did here.

On the 2nd video, she is doing well with the pattern game. 2 things to be careful about: either stand still or walk back and forth to a destination, I think the back and forth here was causing her to watch you more (and think about the environment less) – which sounds like a good thing but it is not LOL! In a more difficult environment, the cue of your movement will not be as strong so we want Winn to do all the work here and not watch you as much during it. And the other thing is to try to keep your hands stationary: try not to move to the treats between reps as much – tools one, reload, then let your hands get quiet (she was watching the hands too). If your motion is quieter, she will take a moment to process the environment and then look back at you, which is what we want her to do 🙂

First video – because she is sensitive to being in the trial ring, if something goes wrong: don’t stop or mark it, just keep going. At :12, the send to 5 went wrong and you stopped and marked it. It deflates her, so I think just continuing is the best thing. It was handler error, so just keep going. When you sent, you pointed forward to the jump which closes off the connection. Now, the dog training side of it is that she should really take it anyway when she is that close to it – so I think more Lazy Game is on tap for her, she can alternate turns with her little sister 🙂
The 8-9 turn looked good! Because that line is so easy for her, it makes sense that sending past it to 5 wold be harder – so giving obvious cues on the bigger sends, really exaggerating them, will help.
The spin on 11 started when she was already in the air, so lock onto the tunnel exit so you can start moving into it as soon as she is out of the tunnel

The training of the pinwheel send went well, nice thrown rewards! Be sure to keep moving while you do it, so she commits even when you are moving away. And then you and she executed it perfectly on the 2nd full run. Yay!!!
So take a look at the 11 turn – on both runs, you did the spin while she was in the air so she slipped a little on landing, adjusted, then kept going. So that is a good one to play with: seeing her exit the tunnel and then begin moving into the spin so she can collect before takeoff. Sequence 2 has an option for that as well (on the #4 jump).

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

She did well here! The best part was the focus and tugging in a relatively new place. And she was super tight and fast around the wings, I don’t think she had any trouble with all the countermotion. After you get the toy back and before you send her, make sure you are facing the right way (with your back to the wing) and standing up – yo were getting sideways and bending over. The other thing to practice on this game are you wrap verbals. You were using her name and a go, so you can replace those here with your wrap verbals.

On the 2nd video – you had your wrap verbal going at the beginning, yay!! I think your position was what was causing her to question if it was a left or right turn on the first wing – you were sideways, so she might have felt it was dealer’s choice LOL! She chose a left turn (you were a little too quick to move away on the very first rep – I don’t think she was chasing the toy, I think she was moving with you). When you switched sides and went to the other wing, you were still a little sideways and but cued a left turn, which she did easily. That leads me to believe she is a lefty 🙂 So when you work these, place yourself more so the wing is behind you and you are sending her backwards – and be really obvious and patient with the right turn sends, in case she has a harder time with those.

Nice work here!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Nice work on these too! The speed with the tunnel definitely adds more oomph on the go lines! She was head checking a little tiny bit when she landed from the first jump but I think that will go away with more experience

Good FCs too, very nice mechanics!!! I liked the timing of the 2nd rep better, you were really timely with the decel! She is collecting but not always controlling her hind end, it was skidding out a bit. That will get better when she is more physically mature: core strength and muscling will help that when she is more adult – she just had baby body action there 🙂

Hmmm, on the rear crosses… either she is a lefty, or she was loaded with a lot of value for turning left for the go and the wraps, or she just needed a rear cross reminder. I thought your cues were pretty strong – yes, you could have driven more through the line to the RC jump on the first rep, but I thought you did on the 2nd rep – but she was looking left. The RC to the left reminded her and then she was great on the RC to the right! So consider trying RCs first next time to see what she does when there is not as much value to the left.

I loved the first backside push! Nice! On the 2nd rep, you had a really arm at 1:32 which turned your shoulders to the front, so she took the front (It was not a reduction in pressure, it was the high arm). Remind that arm to not go above your shoulders 🙂 The high arms end up breaking connection and changing the line of your shoulders. You got it on rep 3 by moving closer to the wing, but you can get it from further with a lower arm Ike on the first rep.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Wheeee this looked good! Having 4 inverted actually made it harder LOL!
I think the whole opening looked great (1 through the weaves). You can try to turn sooner and call sooner to get a tighter turn on the exit of #4, but he didn’t look at you or break stride so I don’t think he had a question.

After the weaves, you stayed at the #10 tunnel too long (:22) to help him see it… so he smoked you at #12 at :25. So – show him that tunnel then trust him to take it so you can leave. And then when you leave, leave directly towards #13 (your first running line was towards the 11 jump which set a really straight line over 12. So we ca get you further ahead and closer to #13, both of which will tighten up the 12 turn. That was the only spot that we can smooth out, the rest looked great!

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Ah, air conditioning! I am jealous! At this time of year, I train at dawn to be able to avoid some of the heat.

Transition Game – I think I was using a 6 foot leash because it was the first one I found LOL!! But you can do it with any length of leash, especially whatever you would use at a trial.
I like that you waited for eye contact – makes is easier to fade the cookies. I was literally typing that you can also have the magical cookie hand behind your back to make it even clearer – and then you put it behind you back. Great minds, and all LOL!
He was perfect here of course, so now that he is learning to recognize the pattern, we can plan to take it into other situations: try it at a trial when things are quiet, and if it goes well, try it when there are dogs running. You can drop the cookie down by your feet if there is not enough room to toss it. The game can ultimately serve as a way to keep him breathing and calmer before entering the ring, so he doesn’t go into a state of arousal that is too high.

Skills: this is why I love this game – we see where the processing becomes challenging for the dog. Yes,there was a narrow range n the easy versus hard for the sit! So ramp up the motion very very slowly, so he can be successful (failure here doesn’t help because it adds more arousal… and with arousal being the issue in the first place, it is better to teach the processing in lower arousal for now. The over a bunch of sessions, you can build to running (or jumping jacks or anything nuts) and then I suggest we apply this game to your tunnel threadle (or any verbal skill he is having trouble with). Back in Chicago in May, you mentioned that he was having trouble with verbals in arousal – since you and a couple of other people mentioned it, I decided it would be a great topic for class 🙂
His say it grumbles were SO FUNNY and that is also a useful trick: you can get him into more of a trial-like state by having him bark a bunch of times and then run a course – this can help with the tunnel threadle arousal issue, because it is hard to reproduce trial arousal at home in training.

Sequence 1: the video stand is AWESOME! Great view for obsessing oops I mean timing. 🤣

First run – you were not the only one to have this off course with a bigger dog! At :16 he is taking off and you were just starting the turn, and relatively quiet verbally (there was one Enz). The 2nd rep was totally different there at :28 – earlier turn of shoulders and a lot more talking: “Enz come jump right”. He looked great 🙂
The 8-9 right needs a slightly earlier lateral motion away at :35 plus I think more decel.
The wrap at 11 was a bit late, he had already made a takeoff decision when you started the rotation – on a shorter distance, you might need to be ready to rotate as soon as he exits the tunnel.
At :41 he drifted for a long while (in dog years) before coming back to the tunnel line. Hmmmm…. yes, you can be sooner and more connected. But – I don’t want him to drift out and wait like that, I want him to hurry back to your line of motion even when your connection is not perfect. He also drifted wide after a good collection cue on the training video, when you were good but not perfect on exiting the spin there. Training ideas on that below.

Training:
Good job working the wrap collection, the earlier cue really made a difference. To get rid of the drifting – yes, be more connected and sooner on the tunnel cue. But – we can also train him to just drive right in, for those moments when perhaps you are not perfect. You can do the wrap and then instead of running towards the next line, just move away to a line and call him urgently but do NOT connect 🙂 Maybe watch him a little peripherally – and when he runs to you: MASSIVE rewards. Motion is the main thing here and we want him to chase your line of motion. He was not chasing it until he saw the next obstacle or saw the great connection (which you were doing in the training moments) but we want him to chase the line of motion even if you are not connected and even if he can’t see the next obstacle. Let me know if that makes sense.

The 4-5-6 versus 7-8-9 is definitely tricky! The cues can be different but also.. at :45 he was drifting (which took him to the off course) and not driving in.
So first, the handling:
For the 4-5-6 – a big send to 5 and a big loud cue for it (this is a good place for a general jump cue because it is somewhat extended but not a GO and also not really a hard right.
To make 7-8-9 look different, use your right verbal and I also like the brake (opposite) hand. But do the lateral motion to 9 basically right after he exits the tunnel – you were tending to wait til he was committing to 8, which also means he will commit in extension.

You shaped it at 1:02 with pressure on his line near the takeoff which really helped – but it puts you in a position that might be harder on bigger courses and also might show a backside line. A spin is an option too, but mainly as a last resort so you don’t end up spinning all the things 🙂

116 and 131 was sooner lateral motion 141 was a very clear send to 5, so the elements when separated worked really well! It was not quite as smooth on the full run when there was more speed, but I think the best handling was the lateral motion at 1:31 and the big send step at 1:41.

Sequence 2:
Looking really good! You can try exiting the spin at 4 sooner, so you are reconnected before he lands. You were really strong about driving out of the cue and calling the tunnel, so he did not drift there.
Small detail: try to send and leave on the tunnel #5 (post turn) rather than decel and spin. The decel/spin is a turn cue and we don’t want to dilute it with extension after it (he did exit the tunnel looking at you for more turn info there at :16, and that little question also costs time when you are trying to win 🙂 )
I liked the FC to on the 8-9 to the tunnel! It would be fun to compare the time that creates versus a blind cross there, to see which is the winning time.
And yes, no worries about the bar, I agree that he was jumping into the wall.

Sequence 3: this 1-2-3 opens up all sorts of fun! You did the threadle here.
4-5-6-7 looked good! I think you can send to 7 and 8 more so that you don’t need to accelerate to get the FC after tunnel 8: you timed your verbal and starting the rotation really nicely, but the acceleration into it sent him a little wide.
He drifted on the 9-10 at :28 line when you were quiet there. I am going to go on an anti-drift crusade, methinks, to get him to tighten those lines a bit.
Nice ending!

Training video – tightening the tunnel brake was good but I would put more motion into it so you tighten it in the context of motion. The drifting went away a lot, when you called him more urgently there! Silence is NOT golden, when we want him to drive right in 🙂
Full run – really nice! You sent more to the 7 jump and 8 tunnel so the FC on the exit was easy peasy!
He drifted again on the 9-10 line… but you were quiet again. I think we found a trend! Get loud and urgent especially when you cannot takeoff and run, or when he doesn’t see an obvious next line.

Now for the opening – we talked last week about the threadle opening versus other ways to do it, and seeing which is faster 🙂 This is a good opening to try several ways:
-Threadle
-Small lead out and run into a German
-true forced front cross (with full rotation, no throwback)
– Running into a forced blind (wheee!)

You have all of these skills, so I would love to see them and time them, so you know what the winning line is. I have done this for all of my adult dogs, so I can look at a course and let you know what the best options are for them (and starting doing it with the 3 year old dog too :))

>> Well, since I’m trialing most weekends (Fri,Sat,Sun), resting Monday, going across the state for class on Tuesday, that leaves Wednesday and/or Thursday to work on my Agility University stuff. I don’t think we’ll get through it by September 1 but we’ll try to get a bunch done.>>

Busy summer!!! I love it! I am open to keeping class going longer if folks want to keep working – I won’t start another online class til late September or October, so there is no rush to get it all done.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> Does “LEFT!” mean turn left now or first jump and then turn left? I want it to mean first jump and then turn left, so I am using “jump left” as a bridging thing.

For me, Left means take the thing and turn left. I didn’t use a bridge because it would muddy the ‘jump’ verbal that I use, which is a different cue. I sometimes use the jump as a general commitment verbal when I am leaving on a line and I just want to support the dog – take the thing!

>>Or at least that’s what I tell myself. I almost NEVER use plain “jump”, since if it is on the line I am showing, I don’t add in a verbal. So while the plain “jump” in theory means “jump in extension”, I almost never use it. When I have a straight (curved) exit line, I use “go on!”: that ends about 50 or 60% of all AKC courses. >>

Even if you almost never use jump, the jump left and jump right will delay the processing because he won’t really make the decision til he hears the left or right, so he is relying on body language at that point (which defeats the point of verbals – we don’t want them to rely on body language all the time).

>>I am going to leave the in-in-in and in-switch alone for now. I rarely use the in (except on lead outs in place of a forced front) and I think I’ve seen in-switch once in a training course.

You can leave it alone til Monday, July 19th when Games Package 3 goes live and we look at that darned threadle wrap. It is getting really popular and now I am seeing it on courses where the judges are making it the only option (dammit). So it is time to get it trained up.

>>As Ann Braue would say: irritation = motivation. When I am irritated enough that I don’t have those well trained, I will have the motivation to correct that situation. >>

YES! Truth. I think that was originally a Susan Garrett saying, I have a shirt somewhere from a Say Yes camp about 100 years ago LOL!!!

>>I have avoided bringing this to the attention of my in-person instructor. Enzo and I are struggling with challenging tunnel threadles in a state of arousal and we need that right now (well, this weekend, I’m sure).>>

It does not need to take priority over tunnel threadles! And also, we can add these arousal games to the tunnel threadles, because we need the tunnel threadles to happen when things are super arousing on course 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I totally feel the pain of getting chewed on by bugs!
But also – she is insane for that frisbee, I love it!!!! So a couple of thoughts:
Jogging in place and waving hands? No problem for her at this point. She was great here.
She loses her mind a little (in a good way :)) for the frisbee so you can make friz throws be the distraction! Do a couple of fake throws on a row and while you are doing the fake throws… cue the around. That will be pretty challenging, I think! And you can also use the friz on course too, to get more speed.
I also trained one of my youngster to love his teeter with, you guessed it – the magic frisbee LOL! So you can bring it to her class and try it there!
I knew she liked her flying squirrel but she is a wild woman for the frisbee which opens up new ways to get her excited and also to challenge her.
Nice work on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

She didn’t appear to think you were too nuts here LOL! She was a little better with the sits – I think she was watching your hands for the spin or for when you would move in towards her a little. So be careful to keep the silly motion in one place like jogging in place LOL! And I think you can definitely build in more of the motion override now – walking forward and giving the cues as you stay in motion, to build up to running. Nice work here! I see the wing stuff is below, that is also the next step 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

OMG an abscessed tooth… OUCH! Hope you are feeling better!!!

She did really well here with her pattern game! The distraction of the agility field was just the right amount of challenge. Plus, being in the new place near the road was perfect too but she was great – sounds like a car was coming by and she offered engagement with you at the end. Yay! You mentioned she was also doing it in class – how does she do in that environment? Trying to plan for where else to take it 🙂 If she is doing well in the class, you can try it while another dog is running (somewhere off to the side so you don’t attract the attention of the other dog :)) And any opportunity to get to a trial or something to add a little more chaos to the environment would be perfect too! Or maybe The Daddy can play with Yuki as a distraction? We can get creative 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Awesome!!! I look forward to more of your updates 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Thanks for putting the first run in the clip, I was all set to go back and load the other one but now I didn’t have to LOL!
Nice work here – I liked the lines better and I think he will be faster on the lines you got here. I was able to get a decent timing on the 4-5-6 pinwheel, and the ‘let him rip’ line was faster already. Yay! And the 8-9 soft turn and the 11 wrap both looked really strong – I couldn’t quite get a timing on them because of the camera angle, but also if he was sluggish in high heat, the times would be deceptive so we can compare more specifically when it is cooler.

One thing I do notice is that when you have your dog side arm parallel to your body, it closes your shoulder forward which blocks connection: so he head checks a bit. The arm can be parallel and down, or parallel and extended: same questions from Presto. A really obvious one was at :36 it resulted in pulling him off the tunnel 🙂 But it is less obvious elsewhere so you can try playing with your arm locked back with your fingers extended to his nose (when you are ahead) so he can see clearer connection. When I time things, the most consistent thing I see across all dogs is that dogs without questions are faster than dogs with questions (even little head checks) even if we have chosen the less-than-perfect line, if that makes sense. So if we can find the sweet spot of connection where he doesn’t need to head check: BOOM! Everything gets faster 🙂

Great job in this work session getting more speed on all the lines, I really loved how he could run it basically in extension except for the wrap, which he looked great on too. When you move to the next sequence, try exaggerating the arm back and see what he thinks!

Tracy
Pinwheel faster
8-9 same ish

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> Along with avoiding/delaying the teaching of rear crosses with my dogs, I have also avoided the threadle wrap while everyone else is teaching it. I better get going…..

I feel this! I personally think the threadle wraps are slower but now the judges are putting them in courses where they are simply the only options. There are a couple of course design trends which I think are best left to training seminars LOL!
But, we need to train the dogs on it so we are starting it here on Monday lol

>>I like Close Close…. but I think it’s too close to Pose. I have a hard time with In In In… Hmmmm… I will think about this.

What about something with the letter F starting it? I don’t think you have any F words on your list LOL! Like ‘flip’ or something?

Pose, Course 1
I had some trouble hearing all the verbals here but it might be my headphones. So I will go with the assumption they were perfect 🙂
I liked the striding effort she had 1-2! But it was a hard jumping effort over 2 at :03. She pulls it off but watch how she had to dip her shoulder over the bar – I think she just needs to see that striding over a slice more and then she will be fine. She does that little shoulder dip on all of the right turns on that jump on the first repetition, actually! When you did it again on rep 2 – she nailed it, no shoulder dip, full on extension. That would only be beaten by a dog with more ground speed (there are going to be very few dogs with more ground speed haha)
Off course after 4 on rep 1:
At :05 she was making her decision and you were moving and facing forward. Compare it to :12 and :35 where you were turned and she got it, no questions asked.
She is a little wide/looking straight over 5 at :13 and :38. This is a good place to compare, within the same session: if you send and leave sooner to get her to turn her head over 5, is that faster (like it is for Contraband)? Or do you let her rip and trust her – is that faster (like it is for Hot Sauce)? My guess is that just turning your shoulders sooner for earlier info delivery and then letting her do what she needs to do will be the right answer for Pose.

On the 2nd half of the sequence

Be sure to keep more connection and parallel line (don’t turn away too early) on the 6-7 (jump tunnel) line at :38 you turned away too soon and she turned her head to look at you (compare to the first rep at :15 where you were more connected and the opening here at :34 and we didn’t see the same head turn). That head turn is costly for time to the tune of about a 1/10th of a second… but we don’t want to lose that fraction.

I didn’t time this session versus the previous one, but I did time the reps of 8-9 and the turn over 11.
The first spin on 8 was a little later so she landed wider. I liked the timing of the 2nd rep MUCH better, plus I think there was a bit more decel to it. So guess what? No real difference in time LOL! And, on the 2nd one which looked better: her jumping effort for 9 was harder because she was on a more severe angle so she put in an extra stride there to sort it out. I would have to look at an overlay to see which was faster there in that section, by about 1/100th.

Looking at the wrap – you were earlier on the 2nd one and it was a nicer turn! And definitely faster. She didn’t respond with a ton of collection before the jump that so many people want… but she seemed to 100% know where she was going and pulled it off without having to slow down. In the next set of games, we will be comparing a whole lot of things like that and it will be very interesting to see!

Differ:
It is hard to see those little dogs behind the jump wings LOL!
Nice opening line, though, giddy up!!! Woohoo! And she moved because she wanted me to time the difference on the opening lines: the curved one on the first rep was about 3/10s slower than the straight one on the 2nd rep. Good to know!

On the 2nd rep, when she went off course to the last jump: at :38 you were facing straight as she was taking off. Same happened at :50, still facing straight as she was taking off (small dog, BIG commitment :)) Compare that to :11 on rep 1 and :58 at the end: you were turned well before it.

So for both girls, something about you saying “jump” might have too much energy and it is causing you to face forward too long. A softer delivery (mine sounds like a question: “jump?”) might help you keep turning.

Looking at the 8-9 line:
I think the spin asks for too much collection for her – she did well with it on the first rep but she had to collect for 8 and for 9 – I believe the let’er rip will be faster as long as you send and leave laterally for 9 early enough so she can see the line. On the 2nd spin rep, your outside arm came up early prominently so she looked at you and barked – that question made it slower than the first rep.

She was a little faster on the 2nd rep of the wrap at 11 – I think there was more motion in and out of the jump, and the cue was a little earlier. One thing I noticed on both was that by leaving 11 early, you ended up decelerating near the tunnel and looking forward – which caused her to look up at you. Questions are costly in terms of time (and frustrating to the dogs, she was yelling LOL!) so it would be fun to look at wraps with you getting up to the wing and then stay for a heartbeat – then drive to the tunnel so you don’t decel and can connect more. In sequences where you don’t have a tunnel next, it would probably get the fastest line! If you had a big long sequence after it, I think the send and go go go would be better. Different contexts can set up different handling and ideally she has no questions on any.

Pose course 3:
Nice send to 2! You can move forward sooner to be able to clear her landing line – she didn’t look at you when she landed (you were just past the line) but she didn’t accelerate as she normally would. You were sooner on the 2nd rep but I think she was still being careful, so you can drive in there to connect sooner and affirm the line for her with connection.

Yes, the lead change for the backside after the tunnel is so hard! GREAT job getting to the tunnel exit at :24 to show it to her!!
Because it requires you to be at the exit of the tunnel (which is not always possible because of her speed) you can play with going the other way on 5 (similar wrap as the one at 10 on that jump) – you would do a BC on the tunnel exit and send her to the other backside wing on your right, then do a FC to 6.
Or a threadle wrap, dog on left. KIDDING!! Haha I would do whatever I needed to do to get the blind and not do the threadle wrap there LOL!

When all the options are equal in terms of being able to get her to do them both easily, I think your original plan is faster so definitely keep training it. But the wrap on the other side will be pretty fast, and helps her stay on course.

She was a little wide on the tunnel exit at :30 and the jump after it: you can give your turn verbal before she enters the tunnel and let her see you start the BC to tighten the exit of the tunnel which will also tighten up the turn on the next jump a little (but you only need it to be a little tighter).

Hooray for the new dig cue! She looked great there and the lines were good too!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!

Super nice opening line and weaves!! Try to stay closer to the tunnel, moving down to the next jump rather than parallel to the weaves and ending up past the tunnel – is a really extreme countermotion, so it is a good thing to go on the training list to gradually add in.

You helped with a big upper body rotation on the backside before the teeter at :11 and :58 That rotation will end up slowing you down from getting to the next position – in this case you didn’t get left in the dust but in other scenarios you would be. So this is a good place to train the independence so you can cue and leave 🙂

After the tunnel at :21 – your send was a little pointy 🙂 meaning you pointed forward to the jump but turned your body away towards the tunnel, so he didn’t commit. Try to use less arm on the send and more connection, so he sees your shoulders turn towards the jump.

Run 2 – nice blind on the opening! Also at :43, super nice! This is a spot you can really run into the blind (very little patience required LOL!)
I thought your opening on the first run (dog on left) was lovely but I timed it versus the blind – the blind was faster up that line. I think the dog on left push created a question on jump 4, where the blind allowed him to just power through, no questions. Wow!

It was hard to hear your verbals after the straight tunnel – I think if you call him more you won’t have to help as much on the jump after the tunnel then you can be way ahead to get the backside at :52

After the teeter – really good blind on the exit of the straight tunnel! I don’t think there is time to do the FC there (1:04) so a blind after it is a better choice because it can start sooner with the head turning and finish sooner with connection without rotating your feet. He was really driving!!!

On the jump before the tunnel at 1:11…. patience (I know, I hate that word hahaha). Don’t rock back out of it, and be super connected – you looked ahead but rocked back so he looked at you. Stay in position and look at him til you see him looking at the jump – then you can run to the tunnel.

It will also be fun to look at the difference between the wrap there, and a slice on that jump to see which is faster! We will start to obsessively time all these in Games Package 3.

You did a FC after the straight tunnel at 1:17 and he ended up taking an extra jump. So to use the FC there and get the wrap: start it, but don’t finish it 🙂 Instead, do half of it and remain facing him so that he gets a massive collection cue on the jump there to come through the gap. You finished the FC and then didn’t have time to set up the spin before he rocketed past you at 1:18 (he was flying, and that is great!)

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

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