Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Yay! Got it!
This is a great start! You are facing her too much and “pulling” her away from the first tunnel entry with your body then flipping her to the far side. Instead you want to teach her to see both options and find the non obvious herself. So face the tunnel the entire time and give your threadle verbal and reward her when she finds the non obvious. Try not to use your arm motions to help her at all. Meaning try not to flip hold her onto you then flip her away. When you are giving your threadle cue you do not want to say tunnel at all.
Is this all making sense?
Drill 2 – At 0:11 you did a tunnel threadle and you gave your threadle cue and your tunnel cue. Anytime you are doing a threadle ONLY SAY THE THREADLE WORD not the obstacle word (jump or tunnel). That will keep things as clear and consistent for her as possible. Otherwise drill one looked fantastic!
Drill 1 – Again, you said tunnel after giving your threadle verbal both times when you did the tunnel threadles. At 2:57 you did a front cross and were sending her to the tunnel on your right but you gave your threadle verbal when this was NOT a threadle. If you watch my video again, I kept the dog on my left side going from 5-6 into that tunnel which means that it WOULD be a threadle. If you do a front cross you are just sending the dog to the tunnel on your right side. Does that make sense? You did the same thing both times when you did this drill.
Try to edit out and additional time setting up for the next drill for me 🙂
Hey Janice, I am so sorry but the link is not working for me. It is not a youtube link so I am sure that is why it is not working. Do you have the youtube link?
Jordan
Hi Mary,
This is looking great! The only thing to add here is that you can also change the position of the starting cone so that she is needing to come in to the threadle at all different angles. Everything else looks great!
Don’t worry that is a normal stage of threadle training 🙂 That only means that she is starting to understand the value in doing threadles, so that is a good thing. Now you just want to have her take the front side of the jump and reward that a bit as well. In the beginning when you do that don’t run as fast as you normally would so you are there to help in the beginning. Then build up the handler speed back to normal (for taking the front side of the jump) Once she knows that she can be rewarded for the front side then you will start mixing the two up in sessions and rewarding her for the correct choice. And the straight jumps will come back!
Check out lesson 2 – there is a section for tunnel threadles using a box for anyone who doesn’t have a tunnel and it works perfectly 🙂
Yes, the really hard angles very well could just be a work in progress for her for a while too. She has a lot of value for the front side of the jump (however, we can see that starting to change 😉 ). But OMG! She is starting to really drive into the threadle even on the more challenging angles (not the really hard ones but the 90 degree angles look fantastic). And you are doing a great job with your motion and direction of your motion (not helping her find the jump bar and running away from the bar)!
I really like how she is doing when you mix in the sit stay sometimes but do probably 60-70% of your reps from the cone. That is really keeping her excitement and speed up! Keep doing that.
Yes, you can add a jump in at the easier angles, I think that is a great idea! Then as I said before just throw in a sit stay at the more challenging angles throughout the session. But there is not reason she can’t start “moving on” and making things more challenging at the easier angles (those look great!). In different sessions (not adding in the jump before at the same time) You can also start to bring back the longer bar. It would be best to go from this 3′ bar to a 4′ bar then eventually to a 5′ bar if you have those options. I think her commitment to the far wing is looking really good so now is a good time to add that in. If needed you can use the 4′ bar and add in a wing about where the 3′ bar is then gradually move the wing back to where the 4′ bar is. So you would actually be using 3 wings for a short while just to make the process more gradual but she may not need that step because her focus on the bar has improved so much.
The next lesson does have some other activities that I think she is ready for. So take a look at that too. They are mostly easy angle activities 🙂
Looks amazing!!
Hi Mary! That is looking great! A few reps on the first video at the end you were slowing down a lot. Just make sure that your morion is as consistent as possible.
With the tempting tunnel she did very well. She had a few mistakes but overall excellent. If she makes a mistake (especially if she gets stuck) make sure to slow down on the next rep to make it easier for her. Then reward her for success, then try adding a tiny bit more speed so that you are gradually building to the speed of the rep that she failed at. Also keep in mind what state of mind she is in as that will help you decide how much to push her. In this video it looks like she was so excited and a bit wild (which is a good thing!). So if she is in that state of mind you must keep your motion easier so that she can be successful! Does that make sense?
Oops I accidentally didn’t add the download PDF. I have it updated now! Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Sorry about that!
Wow! That is looking great. Her speed is really good in this video. I think switching between the cone and the sit stay is helping a lot too. Keep doing that.
A couple of times when the threadle was getting more challenging you started slowing down and really turning your upper body to help her commit to the threadle. So try really hard to keep your motion consistent and don’t overly help with the threadle arm so that she is really learning the verbal. At the easier angles she is ready for more handler motion from you. So gradually start running faster and faster and rewarding her for committing to the threadle.
Also, you can start closer to the cone with her (start at the easy angles – this step is hard). Then you are asking for the threadle when you are still on the landing side of the jump. Then as you are asking you will keep moving forward (same consistent speed) letting her find the nonovious side of the jump.
When she is in the sit stay at the more difficult angles you can also start gradually making your motion more challenging by very very slowly. You can start “running” in place like at the same sped that you are walking but it is running really slowly then gradually faster and faster.
Wow! That is looking really good! Your motion is excellent and she is learning to stay committed to the threadle. Keep gradually moving that cone farther and farther over keeping the same. Also start adding in asking her for the front side of the jumps sometimes as well.
Yess! Nice work! That is way better!
You are helping still with your hands and body. Break this down until the point that you can give the verbal and she is very confidently driving to the non obvious side of the obstacle. In this video you are still having to pull her to you before she is finding the non obvious side. Keep adding in your motion away when she is committed to the threadle so she gets really comfortable with your motion.
Yay!! I think that looks really really great. This is so perfect I am so excited she is RUNNING and RACING you! This is exactly what we need to bring into your agility sessions. Keep playing with the balls just like this in short sessions throughout the day (once or twice a day). Then when she is getting really crazy and excited do a session with the ball game but then sometimes add in a tunnel or a tik tik. Be really careful not to add too much agility stuff too quickly otherwise she might get thinking too much and not be as excited
