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Hi! He looked really focused and happy here, even with the errors!
One thing I noticed on both of these sessions – all of the “normal” sends were good – fast an accurate. By ‘normal’, I mean any that he did not have to threadle by placing himself between the pole entry and you. And for the threadle entries? Nope, high rate of failure. The threadle entry he was struggling with here was when the wing was at 12 o’clock and he was on your left – so you were standing at approx 11 o’clock and he was entering on your left from the 1 o’clock line, which is a threaded (normal sends would have him coming on on your right side from the 1 o’clock line). Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee to explain it better LOL!So when he is on your left, for now on 4 poles: make sure his line of entry is from 12 or anything on the 11-10-9-8-7- side of the poles. And for the 1-2-3-4-5 side, have him on your right. These are the normal sends where he was really great! And on those you can totally tighten the poles up 🙂
For the threadles when he is on the 1 or 2 o’clock line and he is on your left, isolate the skill on 2 poles and you can even use a threadle arm to help him. Then you will see him have a lightbulb moment, at which point that entry can go back to 4 poles 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense!! Nice work here!
TracyHi! This looked great, and extra gold stars for her being able to do this well in a new location. I loved seeing her drive to the entry and then seek out poles 3-4. SUPER!!!!! Yes – onwards to the next step, which would be moving the 2 bases closer, gradually. She will give you immediate feedback in each session, but an idea for you is to:
Do a rep or two with the exact same setup as you had here. If she is successful, you can move poles 3-4 about 2 feet closer to pols 1-2. Do a couple of reps. If she is successful… you can move poles 3-4 another foot closer to 1-2.
That might happen in one session… or several sessions. Let her rate of success guide you – if she fails once, no biggie, ask her again. But if she fails twice? You can make it easier by separating the bases more.When the bases are pretty close, we can add poles 5-6 🙂
>> Prepare to be entertained – the handler had 2 glasses of wine prior just before starting. >>
Ha! I think every session is better when there is wine involved 🙂
Great job here! Let me know if the suggestions make sense, and keep me posted!
TracyGood morning! This was a good session!
I think he is doing pretty well with the striding and will need to see the box cars soon to extend the duration of the striding (he only needs to do it a little on 6 poles :)) I think one more session at this distance where you left off, adding in the harder entries with a little less motion from you (because yes, he is going to have steam coming out of his ears). And if that is also a super high rate of success like here? Onwards to box cars! His box cars can be done at the half inch distance because he will still have to balance to get the striding correct 🙂Let me know what you think! He is getting close to straight poles!
TracyOh no 🙁 I am super bummed with you!!!!!! Did you get to see the rads? It is so hard, I wish the dogs could talk!! Please keep me posted and when he is feeling better, we will catch you up with his weaves!
Perfect! This looked great! His left hind slipped off the board on the crazy elevator game rep, so that is something to watch as we move forward. And when he leapt off, I think he was just self-releasing to the reward 🙂
So, moving forward – if I am remembering correctly, he has not yet seen the crazy elevator from the tunnel, right? Let’s do it! Wheeee! Do a little bang game warm up, then do a crazy elevator game from the tunnel and catch it nice and low – let’s see what he thinks about that. Do one rep of it for a MASSIVE reinforcement (even if he is not perfect, reward anyway) and then you can decide if you think he should do another rep or end on the jackpot. He looks great so I think we can get to the full teeter soon 🙂
TracyGood morning! I really liked these sessions! He is doing a MUCH better job understanding how to hit and hold his end position while you move forward past it. Yay! And your mechanics looked nice and clean, which also helps a lot.
The Warm ups looked good – was there a target? Or a tiny one? He didn’t seem to have any questions. My only suggestion is to do the warm up in the same direction that he will run the full teeter, to prime the pump for the end position he will be asked to hit on the crazy elevator game.
The Crazy Elevator Game looked good here!!! Yes, I really liked his focus too – a nice balance of thoughtfulness and speed! Super! You were really good about adding in motion – he had a couple of off balance moments but by the end he was nailing it. Yay!!!
He almost did the full teeter at 2:09 when you caught it nice and low. So that tells me that he is ready to move on: yes to adding the tunnel! For the next session, do what you did here but with the tunnel instead of the wing. Remember that the tunnel adds a lot of speed and arousal, so you can dial back your own movement/motion until you are sure he is comfortable. Could be 2 reps, or 2 sessions, or whoever long it takes 🙂
And when he is comfortable and that goes well, you can add in a full teeter for real on the session after that.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracySorry for any confusion, I meant the training you are already doing: building value for the end position, running across the board, adding it to sequences, etc 🙂
Tracy
Hi! This looked great! Yes, the connection was really obvious so she had no questions about coming through the gap. Nice! And she also had no questions about the serpentine when you asked for that. Very nice! The next challenge would be to do this at a run 🙂 Connecting AND running is not easy, but excellent practice for the bigger courses.
>> Which game/s should we go for next to get the most bang before the course ends?>>
I suggest the various games where you have to run a bit more, while being connected: that includes the wing/tunnel games like the Diamond and the Starfish, which involve getting turns when there is a lot of speed. And also, the proofing games with the backside challenges will be useful: when you get into the Advanced levels, the countermotion and tunnel challenges will give her a good workout for reading turns 🙂 And you can build up to running hard through all of them, because motion is hard when also trying to get tight turns.
Nice work here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> Putting it together! Are we there already? Am I ready for that?!
Yes! You are ready 🙂 It builds on the games here 🙂
>>I only see two options, a working spot and auditing. Dumb question, but do I have an auditing spot in the current class?>>
You have an online working spot. The thing missing from the course listing is the live working spots, those are full.
>>Arms: I can’t help but point! Something in me makes it a natural response that I need to work on. Any tips to keep myself from pointing?>>
That is totally normal and we all struggle to keep our arms down and not pointing 🙂 2 things to try:
You can run with a cup of water in your hand, and try not to spill it 🙂
Or, you can run with your hands in your back pockets to help keep your hands down.>>Backsides/reward placement: I was thinking that she was supposed to run between the jump and the tunnel after landing the jump. Am I wrong on this? This confused me about where to put the reward.>>
Eventually yes: but to convince her to take the jump while you run forward, we toss the toy to the landing spot so that she will have a lot of value for taking it as you run forward.
>>Jump height: Admittedly, I don’t really know what I’m doing. 😂 Do you know Pam Schiffleger? She has suggested that Ria could do higher jumps in general than the 8 inches that I had been doing though she wasn’t specifically telling any this jump grid and has suggested that her competition height would likely be 20”. I’ll keep the smaller jumps in mine for the grids! I also assumed that she should start 6’ away from the first jump, the same spacing as the other jumps. Good to know that it should be much closer! And depending on the direction they I go, I could managed 15’ away.>>
For the taller jump heights, 2 things to consider:
She will need a good amount of distance between the jumps, so I think a minimum of 15 feet so she has time to get organized for proper liftoff.
Also, footing! That is a big obsession in agility: the dogs need great footing to jump properly, so that would be grass, dirt and some types of turf. The Wholistic Hound footing is good for foundation stuff but not for full height jumping with a fast dog like Ria (they can slip and hurt themselves) so you can do the full height stuff at Tricia’s (she has GREAT footing).>>This past weekend, Tricia Lude had some kind of jumps course setup at her place. Jump jump tunnel, blind cross jump jump tunnel, jump jump tunnel, blind cross jump jump tunnel, jump. I didn’t get it on video, but we gave it a try. We messed up a couple of jumps and in some cases ran way out after a jump before heading into a tunnel, but it was kind of a first experience of sort of feeling like a real handler even if it wasn’t 100% perfect.>>
That is really exciting!!! It is so fun when it starts to come together 🙂
>>At Wholistic Hound we also worked a very small amount with Pam on the A-frame and teeter. Just enough to give her a bit of exposure and hopefully keep her from bad practices on the A-frame that she seems to be sucked into.>>
That is perfect! You can definitely teach Ria what you want her to do (stop at the bottom, in the yellow) so that she can do her beloved a-frame properly LOL!
Have fun 🙂
TracyHi!
Here is a repost for the original reply that the internet ate LOL!!>> is this a separate skill from a regular backside? I think if I’m understanding correctly, this is simply how you handle backsides and the end result is better efficiency for you to get further ahead.>>
It is actually a separate skill, and a good starting point to help the dogs understand the difference between front and back, and how to stay out on the line to the backside. Then when they are good at that, we add in the harder angles of approach to the backside: at that point, we use a send step to push to the backside. That step is only needed on the hard angles – people do it on the easy angles and that slows them down a lot, so we teach the parallel path backside first. 🙂
On the video, the backside are looking really good – she is doing a great job staying on the parallel path and you were able to add more lateral distance too! She had a couple of little questions where she looked at you a bit, like at :31. That was because you were looking out ahead of her, at the wing. That causes your shoulders to turn a bit and possibly present the front of the jump. So to help support the backside line, shift your connection back towards her. That will rotate your shoulders to the line more clearly so she won’t look at you as she heads to the backside.
You can now add more motion up the line, as well as the bar or bump. That bar is a big distraction, so start a little closer to the entry wing to help her get the backsides as you move up the parallel path.
The lateral lead outs look fabulous! Very nice use of that one little step to help her commit. You also had good distance away from the jump and she was far from it too – all good, nice commitment throughout! I think she is ready for the next step: the wing that were next to can now become a jump (which is a bigger visual distraction) and you can add more of the handling – front crosses or serpentines when she is committing to the first jump. You did one at the very end (a FC) and both her commitment and turn were lovely!!!
On the accordion grid: she is doing nicely here too. I was very happy to see that she was able to adjust her stride with no issues at all, in fact I think the bounces on reps 4 and 5 had more power and balance than the bounces on reps 1 and 2! Nice!! She did a one-stride on rep 3, which is appropriate. What was that distance?
You can add challenge to this setup too: leaving the distance between 1 and 2 the same, that 3rd jump can move further away: if it was at 9 feet on rep 3 here, you can move it to 10 feet then 11 feet, then 12 feet (across the span of several sessions) then back in, to challenge her to really adjust her stride. She is really good at it, so it is an appropriate challenge now 🙂>> Is tomorrow our last day to post content for review?>>
Nope! We have until May 31 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi! Big arms are a problem for all of us LOL!! I often run with a glass of water or cup of coffee in my hand, to help keep my hands calm.
I posted a reply to your other videos right before you posted your starfish video… but it looks like the internet ate it. Darn it! Or maybe I posted it somewhere else? Hmmmm. Either way, I will go repost it 🙂
T
Hi! This went really well! Yes, don’t overdo it, hopefully this was finer for your foot. She did REALLY well ignoring the neighbor doing yard work!!!!
>> At .08 and .13 I am saying, “kiss,kiss,kiss” and then “tunnel”. Do I need the tunnel cue? Or do I drop it for this? What do you do? K-k-k means take the tunnel? At .30 I just did the k-k-k, no tunnel cue.>>
Yes – your kiss kiss kiss cue will mean “come in and take the tunnel” so you do not need to give the additional tunnel cue or use your other hand to send her back out to it. Your regular tunnel verbal will mean “take the tunnel on your line” (she was perfect about that) and kiss kiss kiss will mean “come take the other end of the tunnel” like it did at :30. To make sure she understands it, you can can keep saying the kiss kiss cue and give her the threadle arm until she turns herself away to take the tunnel end you want. I think she will have no trouble with that 🙂
One other detail: try to keep your feet moving forward to the tunnel entry on the threadle, rather than rotate to face her: that will allow you to keep running on course and also will help her learn that the word and the arm are the cue, not the rotation.
Because this went so well, you can add more motion when your foot is feeling better 🙂 Great job!!
TracyHi there!
She is doing a good job sorting out the striding and reading the distances. What is the distance you used between jumps 1 and 2? I think it might have been a little bit too long: she was landing in the center between 1 and 2 but then a little ‘short’ on jump 2, meaning her front feet landing close to the bump. And that was changing her balance a bit open jump 2-3. She was stretching really nicely into the 1 stride on rep 3 but I think if we move in the first distance, she will be more balanced throughout.
Try moving it in one more foot closer – so if this was a 5 foot distance, move it to 4 and see how it goes. I think when we find the right distance, she will be even more balanced. Her striding choices are really good! And the slightly shorter distance will help her power through it more.Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I think both of these sessions went really well!! She had a bit of a lightbulb moment in the middle of the second session – note the increase in speed and confident there! Nice! And good job with the reward placement, she was looking ahead and did better about staying in on your right.
So now we are in the planning stages 🙂 For the next session, do one more box cars session where you also add more of your motion and also more handling, like moving away laterally or getting way ahead.
If that goes well? Onwards to getting the poles closer. I think the last reps in session 2 were 8 feet apart, so you can move them to 4 feet (if that turns out to be too close, you can move them out to 6 feet). And if 4 feet goes well? The next session can warm up at 4 and then just move them to 12 straight poles and see what she does. I prefer to not put them straight at the end of the session in case there is any element of fatigue – but moving them in straight can happen on the 2nd or 3rd rep and that will allow her to do 12 poles while she is still fresh 🙂
Great job here! She looks great!
TracyHi!
I totally googled it LOL!For the body awareness, it sounds like you have a lot of good stuff going on. Yay! Do you also have him do side-stepping? That can simulate the swimming a bit and isolate those muscles. I don’t *think* it is fatigue? But it might be. Either way, he will sort it out. It might be more core strengthening needed? Hard to tell since we are not inside him 🙂 I can ask some of my vet PT peeps and see what they say.
Yes, stay at the box cars to give him that gap to recover the balance in the gap and get the striding. When he is more consistent with striding in the 2 sets of 6, we will bring them together 🙂
Tracy
