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Hi!
This went well! She did have some questions but that is normal – it is a REALLY challenging game!
When you add motion to the tunnel and the serp cues, try to be at least halfway between the uprights before you release her. That is where she had the most success, which is fine because those were strong positional cues as well. When you released closer to the first wing Ike at :07, :33 and :36, she was not as certain and had an error. And when you are moving and serping, you can open up your shoulders back towards her more, that really helps her see the serp! When your serp arm was a little too forward, pointing to her landing spot – she was not as sure if she should serp or not.
The threadle at the end looked good too!!So yes, keep playing and adding more motion 🙂 You can also add challenge by changing the tunnel position: rather than having the entry parallel to the bar, you can move it so it is perpendicular to the bar and entirely facing her as she is in the stay 🙂 That will be harder but I think she can do it!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! The rear crosses are indeed a difficult handling move, especially because the verbals with these youngsters are not strong enough yet to save us if we are late LOL!!
First up – the GO lines and the reward placement and the verbals were all FABULOUS. Keep that up!!!!
You can revisit the minny pinny turning away, that is always a good thing – but it was not the issue here 🙂 What was happening was that you were showing the “go straight” info before you showed the RC info, so he was committing to going straight. Sometimes he could pick up the RC, sometimes not.
What I mean by the ‘go straight’ info is that the RC info about how to commit to the jump needs to be delivered simultaneously: take the jump and turn left, for example. Your info was subtlety different: you were cuing the RCs as a “take the jump, then turn left” behavior with your running line: you were moving forward for a step or two or 3 (which meant: go take the jump straight or on the lead you were on) and then you were cutting in behind him (which meant: turn left/rear cross). But because he had several steps of “take the jump ahead info” without the rear cross info, he was not always able to read the rear cross in time.
So to cue the RC – deliver the ‘take the jump and turn’ info simultaneously, by moving on the RC line the entire time as he is driving forward. He will feel the rear cross diagonal pressure the as soon as he exits the start wing so he has all of that room to make the adjustment to the rear cross.
To do that, start super close to the start wing, close enough to touch it 🙂 and stay at it til he is just about done wrapping it. And as he exits the start wing, your feet are facing he center of the bar on the RC jump and you will then start running up the line to the center of the bar. That also means you never turn forward to the go-straight side of the wing wing – being close to the start will will help prevent that.
That way, you will be facing and moving towards the center of the bar the whole time, so as he starts looking at the jump, he gets the info to commit to the jump and more importantly: how to commit to the jump!He is able to read the RC pressure – at :06 you were a little late, but :11 and :17 were better (these were the right turns).
Left turns were definitely harder – this might be his harder side and also there is less room on that side (plus he just had reinforcement for going to the right) so he is less likely to be able to save things if the info is late 🙂 Looking at the left turn reps: I like to freeze the video twice for each rep to see what he is seeing. I freeze it when he is exiting the start wing, and when he is taking off for the jump.
At :31 and :41, the RC info was too late for him to process on time because your position when he exited the start wing was pretty lateral, lined up with the ‘go straight’ or ‘turn right’ side of the jump, which made things too hard to show him the RC info before he had to make a jumping decision. yo started way lat
At :37 – he felt the pressure but still not quite soon enough. Being very close to the start wing to set it and moving directly up the RC diagonal will help him there.The head turn stuff is a great reminder! And it patterned the turn so that when you added the RCs starting close, he was able to get it nicely.
Then at 1:50 when you went back to the full line RCs – he got it but you can still get on the RC diagonal sooner 🙂 Freeze the video just before he takes off at 1:51 and you will see you are pressuring the diagonal for the RC but not cut across his line yet for the RC. And that is why on the last rep, at about 1:55, he turned left when you wanted a right turn RC: you were on the “go straight” side of the jump as he exited the wing wrap at 1:54, and then at 1:56 he is committed to the center of the bar for because you had not cue behind him yet so he turned to where the rewards were for the last few reps 🙂
And that is fine – it illustrates the power of reward placement and I love that!!!
So the only tweak is changing your start position on the wing, which will change your running line (running to center of the bar til he is past you and committing to the jump). You will notice that you are closer to him, closer to the jump, and not all that far behind when he lands from the rear cross which is a GOOD thing, we don’t want to be left in the dust LOL!!!)
Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!
TracyGood morning! This session went well, I have a little tweak for you to help the RCs be even smoother. RCs are REALLY hard with young dogs (and, in my opinion, smaller dogs) so overall he did super well here!
The run-jump straight lines and the left/li li turns looked great! Yo can definitely add more running into both of these – he will love it 🙂 And on the go lines in particular, add a bit more connection to his eyes as you say it and he exits the tunnel. You were looking forward on those so he was not entirely sure where to be til he got closer to the jump – you can see him coming into you then back out. A bit of connection (I don’t think he needs a ton there) will smooth that line out.
The rear crosses are coming along nicely – he is doing well. I don’t think you need to go back to previous steps of this – we can get you closer to the RC line and on it sooner, which should help make them perfect.
On the early reps, you were moving straight for a bit too long and were too far ahead, and then beginning the RC line after he has committed to turning left – At :42 and :52 and 1:09 you are on the opposite wing as you begin the RC cue and he is already having left turn thoughts.You had more accelerated and started the RC line a LOT sooner at 1:15 which is definitely helpful! Be sure your running line is to the center of the bar – your feet were on the backside wrap line there for a bit, which is why he considered the backside wrap.
At 1:25 we are starting to see you show the RC info sooner so he made the adjustment a stride before takeoff, good boy!
I think to really smooth it all out, you can combine the running line you did at 1:15 with the timing of 1:25 –
Run closer to the tunnel so you are not ahead of him or decelerated as he exits. Then as he exits, you will accelerate to the center of the bar until he passes you – then you can cut it for the RC. You will know you are on the right line when you notice 3 things:
– he has no questions and turns to the right immediately
– you feel like you are pretty darned close to the bar and to him when you do the RC
– you are very close and maybe a little ahead of him on the exit of the RC.Moving in closer to the tunnel rather than sending and leaving will really help – you can be lateral from the entry when you send him in, closer to the exit, but run in to the curve of the tunnel so you can then be moving up the RC diagonal to the center of the bar to set the RC line.
And keep up with those most excellent toy throws for each verbal – even when they hit the wing 🙂 they help solidify the understanding even if the handling is not perfect. The verbals are most useful when we are not perfect and when we need distance, so the toy throws here really supported what you were teaching him as far as the difference between go, left, and rear cross/right.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
All the videos from your part of the country have crazy winds in them! Eek!!!! Hopefully the weather calms down soon.
The GO reps looked great. – fast and super high energy. Love it!!! And the left reps looked great too – nice turns AND she stayed on her line to find the wing.
Rear crosses are one of the hardest handling moves – forget all that fancy stuff, I think rear crosses are harder LOL!!!
You do have enough space but you can also move the jump out another foot or two to give you more room. There is one little tweak that should help:You were cuing the RCs as a “do this then do that” behavior with your running line: you were moving forward for a step or two or 3 (which meant: go take the jump) and then you were cutting in behind her (which meant: turn right/rear cross). When you did it as she was taking off, she either didn’t get the turn (:19) or turned over the bar (like at :27 and 1:09). The this-then-that cue is causing a bit of an outside leg step to start cutting in that might also change how she reads decel for wraps & spins (she might predict rear crosses when we don’t want them) so if we change up your running line, that will not be an issue.
So to cue the RC – deliver the ‘take the jump and turn’ info simultaneously, so as she is driving forward, she already knows she is taking the jump. That means you never turn forward to the left turn wing, not even to cue her to take the jump: you will be facing and moving towards the center of the bar the whole time, and she should be seeing this as she is exiting the tunnel.
As she is exiting the tunnel, you are facing the center of the bar and moving towards it. Her role is to drive past you and on the flat shift her leads so she can take off turning to her right for the rear cross. When you see her committing to the bar – that is when you cut behind her to complete the RC. You will find yourself doing it a lot closer to the jump, which is GREAT because then you won’t get left in the dust on rear crosses 🙂
And one trick to be able to do that on a smaller setup like this: run in towards the center curve of the tunnel, then run out again, so you are in motion but not more than a step or two ahead of her. If you stop at the entry/exit of the tunnel, it is harder to show the RC line.
Let me know if that makes sense! She was already reading the RCs here, so having you get on the RC diagonal earlier will make them even easier 🙂 Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Sounds like you got a bit of the the crazy winds your part of the world was having! She seemed a little distracted at first bit came back to focus really quickly 🙂
On the set point – she was showing good form but not necessarily taking off or landing where we want her. I think that had to do with the start position – she was a bit too far from the first jump, so she was taking off from her sit (because there was not quite enough room to take a stride) and that landed her a little short on the first jump. So you can have her start closer to the first bump – probably having her front feet 5 or 6 inches away from it (I highly recommend a bit of cookie luring to get her there the first couple of times so she realizes that it is OK to start that close :)) That should allow her to move the way she did here but have comfortable landing positions between the jumps and after the 2nd jump.
I think the distance between the jumps was good for now – that might change at some point down the road but let’s see how a different start position helps her. And the toy can be a bit further before the release but where you started and where you dragging it to on the last rep was really good 🙂>> how do you teach the dog not to get the toy on the ground until you tell them to get it?>>
We taught that sneakily (the pups didn’t realize it was a self-control game too haha) in the early strike a pose games, where you had the toy in one hand and the target in the other, and had her ignore the toy (or cookies) and tap the target, then go to the toy with a verbal (like “strike” or “bite”). Then we went to dangling the toy… then we went to the toy on the ground. She did well here! Was she having difficulty maintaining her stay when you put the toy on the ground?
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think if you gave him more distance, he would go faster LOL which means your timing would be the same or need to be even quicker 🙂 Try leaving it at this spacing for now and see how it goes 🙂
TracyHi! Lots of lovely work here!!
On the Wind In Your Hair: this is going well!! And you sorted out the question about the rear cross versus backside REALLY nicely!
On small detail: On your Go reps, you can be a little more outside of the jump wings to run past the jump so she doesn’t feel any rear cross pressure. You were tending to run toard the bar on those (like at 2:58, for example), which can be a bit similar to the rear crosses. So be sure to run outside of the jump wing, as if you are continuing on past it.When you send to the start wing, remember to use your dog-side leg to support the send, she was not sure if she should to it when you didn’t use your dog-side leg. (or she wasn’t going to it)
RCs are going REALLY well. YAY!!!
>>Saw some confusion when I switched to backside wrap
Yes, I see what you are mentioning! The value of the front of the bar has gotten higher now that rear crosses are introduced, which means the cue to the backside needs to be more connected. I think the main thing will be that on the backside cue: stay super connected to her eyes and don’t look forward ahead of her to backside wrap as it turns your shoulders and feet to look just like RC. That is what happened at 3:27 and 4:06 – that one moment of turning and looking ahead of her, pointing forward, made the upper body and feet look pretty similar to those shiny new rear crosses LOL! You got better connection at 3:37 and then after 4;14, you got the connection AND the smooth motion so the reps at 4:27. 5:14. 5:45 and 6:17 were perfect! On the next session, you can alternate the rear crosses and backside wraps more, to be sure you are showing distinctly different lines.
Ladder grid: She did well here too 🙂 The angled jumps were easy for her too. YAY!!
What was the distance here? You might want to add 6 inches between each jump for now – she is small but she seems to have a nice big stride! This distance looked a little small for her, for now.
>>>Seems like she looks up a bit still. I think I had a late reward delivery to bowl on the ground in first reps which caused her to question the reward placement >>
I think having you leaning over to put the food in helped keep her head down – you can also have it placed in the bowl before the release, so she can look at it and you don’t have to wrry about how fast you get it in the bowl 🙂 The empty bowl is not as exciting to look at as the cookie, so the cookie in the bowl might do the trick. You can also try a toy there instead of the cookie – she is making good choices so I think she is ready for the increased excitement of a toy target 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyI am glad he likes the rubber frisbees! You can punch a hole in it and loop a line or long tug through it, so it is a toy he chases but cannot grab you hands. I have a photo of that somewhere, let me find it….
T
Hi! Just responded to your email too 🙂 You can upgrade for $144 – you can send it via Paypal at reboundexport@yahoo.com, or I can send an invoice. Thanks!
TracyGood morning!
Wow, he is ZIPPY with his lead changes! This feedback is a bit boring 🙂
2 wings were too easy, 3 wings were great, really fabulous!! 4 wings were challenging for the speed of handling plus he had to sort out the setup – and he did! So now your challenge becomes: as soon as you see the lead change, do the next cue so your cues will be quicker and earlier. So when you are ‘pushing’ him away – as soon as he leans away, do the pull cue – then as soon as you see him lean in – do the push. You will also find that now that he is sorting out the setup, you won’t need to have as much movement so it is easier to be sooner when you can move less 🙂But overall, I am super pleased with how is doing!!! Lead change coordination is NOT easy for youngsters plus a lot dogs don’t like to lead change away… but he was great. So for the next session, start at 4 wings and see if you can work up to 5 wings! Yay!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I say OH H*LL NO to another 6-12″ of snow fo ryou. EEK!!
>> While still on your left from that same spot, you can add in the right turn cue so she will go to the other side and turn towards you.>
OK, so start mixing it up from the more neutral position a bit, do right and left from the same setup. I haven’t done the set up where we are in a totally neutral position and she is between my legs yet though. Should we try that first??>>No need to do the purely neutral one first, I think having her still seeing a bit of handling help (because you can use a little hand cue or leg step) is a good intermediate step before having her start between your feet with no handling help.
Send and Serp:
Good serp warm up before the send! She did REALLY well on her serps, yay!! And she was not smashing through the wing like she does o the barrel LOL so no more barrel for her 🙂
Question: are check and dig your wrap cues or your soft turn cues? In this case, a soft turn cue would be appropriate because the wing to serp is a left or right turn, no a wrap (picture the having a bar on the wing and that will give you a clearer visual of what verbal fits best)> If check and dig are your soft turn verbals… then carry on 🙂
Yes, she is ready for the advanced level with the FC balance reps 🙂
Ladder grid- she did well here! The MM is a bit to chill for her, she is kind of looking at you, kind of looking at it, but migrating towards you in the grid… it is a good start to teach her the shape of te grid with the MM, but for the next session, change it out for a toy. Use a nice big toy that she can scoop up while continuing to run through (like a big hollee roller) so she can keep moving. If that goes well, we will move to a dragging toy 🙂
Rear crosses: You are beating yourself up too much, there is plenty of good stuff here!!!
Her GO lines look great, my only suggestion is to use your GO verbals. rear crosses rely on driving ahead, and she was great!Yes, on the RCs you are late but it is an easy fix: What is happening is that you are moving away from the start wing too quickly so you have to run forward in order to let her get past you, before starting the RC cue. That is causing her to lock onto the straight line (correctly). You can see it at 1:15, 2:00, 2:21, and 2:33 as great examples of that. So to set it up better, stay at the wing til she is fully done with the wrap – you will be close enough to touch it and she will be almost at your leg – then you can start the RC line a lot sooner, so she wll see it and respond sooner.
Also, the left turns happened after about 350 rewards to the right LOL, which did not help your cause LOL!! So maybe separate out left and right turns into separate sessions and then when you bring them back together, switch sides a lot more frequently so she does not get locked into one placement of reinforcement.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Handler is allowed to have a reasonably sized silent toy/aid with them for use once their run has started (this toy must be approved by the Judge of record PRIOR to the start of the class to determine its eligibility, absolutely no food/scents/audible devices). The toy is NOT allowed to be used in the IN gate chute or prior to the previous dog leaving the ring.>>
Rules, rules, so many rules LOL! I think a furry food pouch can work and will likely be approved if there is no evidence there was ever food in it. I like you idea of fur-on-a-line, that is a possibility! Try it in a comfy area and see if she likes it, then bring it to class and see if she likes it.
>> I don’t want to plan to “stop and reward” mid-course if it’s not clearly rewarding to her – My toy play skills are not great / never developed and I don’t want more of “oh god mom is being weird” in the ring. >>
I personally think there is waaaaay too much emphasis on toy play skills and that definitely makes us all weird. Whenever we put “play” and “skills” together, we all start to get weird. LOL! When using a fur-on-a-line, just think of yourself as a giant lure course lure 🙂 drag it on the ground and run away from her and make silly noises 🙂 We will test it out in class and see if she likes it 🙂 If she likes it? Cool beans! If not? No worries, there are other ways to do NFC/FEO.
>>What already makes sense is to go in, remove leash, set her down, wait for offered engagement and then leave the ring to go to our cookie station. Or wait for offered engagement then do a few obstacles in a flow to the finish / exit. Nice thing about this plan is that I can pivot to it any time. I will mention in case it’s relevant – she already has a tendency to head for the exit if it’s getting a little stressy. I’m sure that’s common.>>
All sounds good! Be sure to rehearse that offered engagement about 10 zillion times in class – but with a lot of reinforcement from your hand or pocket bcause it is about conditioning the engagement, not chaining enagement into instant remote reinforcement.
>>I think I should plan FEO for any course that requires weaves and make up a course that clearly bypasses them without disjointed handling. >>
Totally agree – and I think you should FEO *every* run, weaves or not, until you have the focus/engagement you want. The long term goal is more important than any Q in the short term. I work a stepwise progression with the NFC/FEO plans (more coming on that on Monday) and I find that people skip the steps between step 1 (just like home) and the last step of doing runs ‘for real’, which creates a lot of stress.
>>Also she jumps 12″ in CPE and the A-frame is lower – so already some less complexity there, yay!
Yay! The goal is fast & fun and LOADS of reinforcement, and complexity doesn’t help with that.
>> YES I will get them transferred to a note card.
A student in a previous class put her reminders on a card, laminated it, attached it to her leash. Brilliant!
>>Leash off games are getting better – and by that I mean I’m remembering to cookie them more often! (Plus Zippie’s engagement is almost instantaneous even with a body shake) Instant Focus at new locations is coming along. I alternate between putting the cardboard down when she could be watching, and having it already in place.>>
Awesome!
>>The only reason I can think of that I didn’t already is because of my own nerves, even if slight – which is all the more reason I need to work on pulling tools out of tool box to get my own mental management sharper.>>
That is a good observation! Like with dogs, if we humans give ourselves alternate behaviors, we can reduce our nerves and then the skills stuff goes really well!
>>And I will plan a trip to the outdoor location she’s never been to next weekend – more of taking these games on the road, or do you want me to plan an FEO run type thing at this new location? (We will have Game Pack 3 by then as well).
Definitely lean more on the games in the new places. Her success will tell you if she is ready for FEO-style run too.
>>I want to share today’s training session. I don’t have a lot of questions for you, I just think you’ll find her bouncy step charming. Especially at the end – she anticipated leaving the cookies to go work to earn the cookies – it was really lovely leadership on her part – or at least that’s how I saw it.>>
She was great here! No worries about the shake when the leash comes off, it is probably just a response to the stimulus of the leash coming off. She was great! Lovely offered engagement, snappy tricks, all good! Yay!
No worries about the crate sniffing – I am sure there was a ton of good smells there, so waiting her out was great.
One suggestion is to turn the game around, so she has her back to the reward station, and is not facing it (simulating the trial experience). That might be a good ‘next step’ because she can’t see both you and the reward station, so it is harder indeed!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Some notes on the Pre-run Documentary – sniffing around is great at the beginning. I think the pattern games are really helpful. You might have gone to tricks too soon – you can wait until you are within 4 or 5 dogs before you (sorting out the timing is hard) but he seemed fine with it!
You can also rehearse this ritual when you DON’T have to run, so he has already sorted out the environment before you need to be ready to run. ou might already be doing this. And that way, when getting ready for the real run, the only new environment he has to deal with is that we handlers get a little freaky (I mean, let’s be honest: I’ve been doing this for almost 25 years and still get nervous running my novice dogs LOL!)
You can work the engaged chill, hanging out where Amy told you, just letting him look around. Click/treat for Amy for reminding about engaged chill and for sending someone to check the run order for you, for letting you know which dog reacts to males, best pathway to the ring, moving dogs out of the way…. I wonder if she is available to help me at trials? LOL!!!! It is great to have so much support!!! Amy if you are reading this, please consider moving to Virginia LOL!!!! (Kidding but also NOT KIDDING) Warms my heart to see all of the community support!
He looked happy and relaxed and kept offering re-engagement. Good boy!
On the start line – one suggestion: Remember that you are a member of Team Fake Chill and take your hand off his collar. If he needs to look at something, don’t pull on him as that will cause him to look away more. Just stick the leash down your pants and wait.
it was a great run!You trusted him so much more in standed with hand off the collar, he was great!
>>Courtney said I needed to cool it with my verbals at the end and let him commit first- fair and accurate feedback.>>
She was a little behind you so might not have had the same visual of the connection as the camera did: He was not committing because there was not enough connection then when you added the verbal he was trying to make the turn. So, ramp up your connection during the run – baby dogs in new environments need REALLY massive connection. For the line after the table, adding more connection will help get him on the line – it is a pretty direct eye contact as you are running fast 🙂 Great job NOT fixing it though – it was hander error not dog error so better to just keep going.
>> this was way at the end of the day- 5:40 or so. He was more worried walking in. There were two big male boxers staring at him that really worried him. Courtney and Carrie thought he looked great with no worries. I was overly freaky because he was worried outside of the ring. He came off higher than he went in which I loved.>>
He looked pretty good on the start line for JWW!! And offered engagement as you led out and was VERY fast off the line. I think shoving the leash down your pants simulates FEO and I am on board with it LOL!
One suggestion: don’t task him to weave in competition runs for now – he has a high failure rate an then you stop and I don’t want him to lose the flow. We want him to think being in the ring is EXCITING because it is mainly about the RUN FASTS (tables are dumb too). So work around them, do a cross to go past them, and work them in FEO runs where you can reward in FAST and T2B .
Great job on these!!!! Are you running today?
TracyGood morning!
I agree, she did a great job here!! My only suggestion is to connect more, looking at her eyes with your dog-side arm back more (while also running fast like you did here too LOL!!) When the jump was close and/or your running line was close, the connection didn’t have to be as clear. The whole opening section looked great and you did a lovely job of starting easy with the jump close, then making it harder and harder 🙂As you added more lateral distance, the connection became more important:
At :48 she missed the jump – you can try being in the same position with your dog-side arm pointing back to her so she can see your eyes and upper body (your dog-side arm parallel was parallel to you and not back to her, so it closed your shoulders a bit and broke connection)
At :51 on the tunnel send, you turned away a little too soon so she peeled off at the last moment but you fixed it with one more step to support her line on the next rep. Yay!
At 1:12 yes, when you did a spin on the tunnel entry which is a turn cue so she was correct to turn and not take the jump.So to get more laterally away from the jump, you can try starting further from the start wing so you are already near the lateral line you want to run and won’t need a spin – then as she exits the tunnel, you can play with having your arm back, fingers pointing to her nose and your eyes towards her eyes, to see if that added connection supports her line better. And keep throwing the reward the way you did: that was great!!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Center line ups can work great for the littles 🙂 And they are a fun trick too, and she likes tricks. I think part of it was that you needed to be clearer with the info – she is still learning it so when you were not clear, she offered what she already knew (good girl!)
She was very happy to run between your feet, which is great! She is super fast, so you needed to be fast and clear with where you wanted her to be. When you had your hand in position, she nailed it. Good girl! Without the clear hand indication, she was not quite sure where to be – the hand cue was an important piece of it so she knew where to be and where to stop. Without the hand cue, she either didn’t know where to be, or she came between your feet and turned to face you (which has a lot of reinforcement history). She was figuring it out so you might not always need the hand cue, but for now in the beginning stages you can definitely use it.
She did nicely in the stay part of it. If she is just behind you, that is fine – I think you were backing up at 1:15ish, so she was confused and thought she needed to back up too perhaps? So she can be in the roughly right position and you can step forward for the ‘dismount’.
At 1:55 when she was in the stay and you looked over your right shoulder – not sure what you wanted there? Neither was she, so she guessed and came to your right side (a good guess LOL) but she and I were both wrong 🙂 If you were trying to figure out how to add in the lead out, asking her to stay and you stepping slowly forward is probably the best bet.For now, my current favorite line up for her is the carry-in, putting-her-down on the line. But this game could develop into a fast, fun trick on the start line too, whether it becomes the line up or leg weaves. Either way, keep playing with it because it can be useful for us.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
