Here comes your second homework!
1. multi-wraps with handler in different positions: set a bar at your current cik&cap height and have a dog do multiple wraps around the wing. Change your position so that you're sometimes on take-off side, sometimes on landing side of the jump. Reward by reaching in with a toy to reward close to the wing. Multi-wraps should always be your first exercise when you put the bars on the next height and you should keep working on them on each height, it's great collection jumping exercise, I actually do some before every training, within our warm-up.
2. cik&cap sequencing: we'll mask this training for different handler positions and moves into a little sequence and include a tunnel for extra fun 🙂 Start with cap on one, try cik with handler on a landing side on 3, a shoulder pull from 4 to 5, cap with a front cross on 5, tunnel again and then push for another cik on 7. Reward in the direction of where I set number 8. Break it down in little parts first.
3. 2on2off vs. running: time to address contacts! Send a video of whatever you've got till now if you are already working on it. If you haven't done anything about it yet, those two videos show first step of 2on2off (at 3:13 of this video) - stopping in the position on a box/upside down drawer:
and running (at 1:30 of this video - I hope it's fine I used your video Gitte 🙂 ) - running over a long carpet:
If you haven't decided yet, you can work on both, using a box or up-side-down drawer for 2on2off and a carpet or a wide, thin plank for running contacts - and then see what you like better.
Sorry this is late! I’ve been having some crazy things come up. So I don’t have a video for lesson 2, but I do have questions. I will get a video soon.
Indie seems to be a little confused with cik&cap, she is older and an experienced and I guess she just doesn’t get it for some reason. She often turns back before finishing the full wrap and runs at me. Do they need to understand the verbal commands strongly for cik&cap before moving onto sequences? I’ve gone back to working on cik&cap with a traffic cone to help strengthen her understanding. Any tips?
Yeap, I would work some more on sending to a wrap with a verbal before going for sequences. Start close to make it easy for her to take it without stopping and then slowly add distance.
Hi everyone
Here is our Lesson 2 video. I first included a weave update. Sen has started to get the idea of what is a correct entry and what is not, and when she is marked for it she speeds off down the channel. I am very happy about that! We have not got much distance on the sends yet, but I have been away for 3 weeks so we have not practiced enough yet either.
In this video I am using food. I usually use a toy with her, but this time I had my other dog in the training area and she would not work for toys. Next time I will leave him inside as I don’t want her reliant on food rewards. However I learnt from it that if Sen is present when I train my other dog, he works better (he is a very jealous type and thinking he is missing out gets him revved up in a usefull way).
I finally decided I have to drop the two commands for right/left. I have been trying to get that right for a looong time (many moons, not just for this course). Both my dogs learnt left/right just fine, but me -- no. So now we have our own club for the directionally challenged in this class :), and Sen has a new cik/cak word (I just say cha-cha-cha when I want a collection turn). That threw her for a while and we had to go back to the pole with it first. I think that there is not anything wrong with her position on the turns, but it is not at the stage yet where I can send from a distance.
We did the sequence but I have to say it was a bit much for her as she isn’t quite there yet. She tends to tune out if I ask for more than 2 obstacles in a row -- that’s all quite new for her. This doesn’t bother me as it will come soon enough, and it is fun to try to get all the bits of the sequence done in parts. It took two videos to show the whole sequence -- I didn’t get her to run the whole thing in a row.
There are several running contact videos. The board I have is rather short but it was the best I could get, and it seems to work ok for my dogs. Later in the video I marked the board with white tape. This made it easier to see hits in the right zone. Perhaps the target zone here is too small -- its half a euro contact length (now I have changed it to nearly the whole normal contact length). At first it was very hard to click at the right time, and with a small dog to see the feet. Recognising the rear leg separation is perhaps the hardest, because Schipperkes tend to run fast with their legs quite together. Anyway I have marked the ones I thought were ok so please confirm or correct (the very last one is not ok -- the text disappeared for some reason). I find it easier with may older dog to watch from the front.
Happy training!
Getting there with the weaves, time to close it some. Nice tightness on turns, let’s put those cones away now. For contacts, I would like even more forward focus and speed, I think she is faster when running in a sequence vs. over the plank… You rewarded the right ones, but do focus on forward focus some more.
Re: slow dog moments
Now, for those of you that remember our slowness discussion, I thought I’d post the results of my weave experiement -- “micromanagement” versus send and “trust the dog knows what he is doing”. Shot same day, same location, different runs. What do you think?
Cool comparision. It’s a fun feeling when you realize that your training worked and you can prepare for the next obstacle while you dog completes the weaves. When I saw your tunnel sends I realized that your dog has a ton of speed.
Nancy
Yeah and I hope she stays fast -- my older dog is so slow it is painfull to run him. When I started him I had no clue about agility and did lots of things wrong, but he is getting better with time 🙂
Hi Everyone,
Finally catching up with posting, I was away the first few weeks of class. This video is lessons 1 & 2 combined. I am focusing on cik and cap. I had trained cik and cap with Tovah (2.5 years) during the winter, but lost the tight turns at speed, in trials, in the middle of courses. So I am trying to get them back. In the winter I did all the foundation work--around trees, poles, anything I could find, getting distance and speed, and then started with jump standards. I added height slowly--it took about 2 months for the whole process, but now when I look back on it I think I added height too fast and did not do enough sequencing/coursework when I was training.
So I have been working at 16-18 inches mostly, and just moving to 20 now, and there are a couple of clips at 20. She turns very tight at the lower heights, less so at 20. I’ll be able to get to lesson 3 this week. I wonder if I should go to 20 inches, or stay at 16-18 for now & try to get her turns at speed/in the middle of sequences and courses. Her real jump height here is 22 (I do mostly usdaa--in akc she jumps 20), I would love to have these finished by October if that is realistic.
I hope that I’ll be caught up by the end of the class :-). So much fun. I have been working on independent weaves too, love the exercises you gave us in lesson 1.
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/shelahsbloom#p/u/0/32FuKc9HTnI
Hmm, I don’t think the video worked… trying again:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=user/shelahsbloom#p/u/0/32FuKc9HTnI
Shelah,
Try posting just the link to the video without the user/shelahsbloom part and then put httpv before it.
Kristin
Kristin, can you see what I am doing wrong?? see below my two feeble attempts…sorry everyone!
Hm, I would actually suggest going to 14… On 16, some are really good, but many aren’t and on 20, it’s not real cik&cap anymore, so I think you will get there faster by going more slowly this time. So go back to 14 and do all the exercises again on that height, making sure she is collecting for every turn and only add more height when she is successful each time at 14. To practice with speed even more, spread the two jumps of figure 8 MUCH further apart AND angle them for 90 degrees so that you are working on hard, side approaches that really promote jumping close to the wing vs. straight approaches that promote jumping in the middle. Do one jump sends from that approach too (see some videos of others), don’t always send her to the other side as you don’t want her to think cik&cap can only be done when pushed to the back-side.
Okay, great, thanks. I have seen that she is much tighter at even lower heights. I will take the height down to 14 and work from there.
I want to put in whatever time it takes to get this right. I am at the point when I can easily see the many places I can use these turns in our courses that would make all the difference!
And often, taking things slower takes us to the goal faster as when rushing things up 🙂
Silvia, after watching the videos again I realized that I am getting very WIDE turns from Tovah (that I thought were tight until I watched others), so I am back tracking even a little more. I am doing a tape starting with sends (from the 90 angle mostly now) & multiwraps with no bar, then going up a couple of inches at a time (will go to 14 inches), I’ll put the fig 8 in too at these heights & see what you think, I should finish tomorrow. I notice that when she goes around a wing she seems to turn wider, so I am using both a standard without a wing & a wing in the clip. I’m thinking I probably did not get tight enough turns around the standard/wing at speed before I started putting the height up. Hmm she was really good around trees--even the smaller ones. Anyhow we are having fun with this :-).
Yeap, sounds like a good decision! And I definitely agree, watching videos of others is very important part of this class, I think we can all learn from videos of others A LOT, especially as we have such a nice variety of different dogs in this class, I love it!
One more try…
Oh my, I am REALLY sorry for all the mistaken posts everyone…a little new to this technology but finally got it. Next time I am know what to do…!
yay, you did it!
So, here comes the video to the second lesson! I’m trying to catch up!
I am not sure why but also today, Tjejen is very slow and not really into a working mode. I hope it is just the heat, she doesn’t seem sick in any other way. So, I just made little practice and send what I got!
And yes, we really need to do more multiwrapping!
In the sequence one reallly sees the low motivation. She usually RUN and jump for the toy.. now I could barely get her to trot.
For the slalom, I think I could make her faster if I open up the slalom a bit. I trained her with the 2x2 method but if I make a thin channel I could increase her speed, or what do you think?
For the contacts we are still working on the running contacts, trying our best.. 🙂
Now we go for lesson No 3..
She doesn’t seem to understand multi-wraps no. To avoid confusion, I would first do it on just one pole/wing/stanchion and once she gets that, go to the real jump, but stand at it’s side, not in front, as it makes things easier, and reward the second wrap already -- and add another one only later, when she understands two wraps well. Also, make sure you reward in the right direction, promoting the wrap -- not throwing the ball over the jump straight as you do in the last try.
The sequence went very well, very nice wraps, but yes, speed could be better… When you see she is not feeling like running too much, the best is to simply end a session and try again later.
And yes, I agree about the weaves: let’s try to open a channel some to get more speed and better style, she is jumping in and out some more as you would want to (you want her stay closer to the middle, jumping out only costs you time). But entries and independence look great, try some even more extreme things.
Haha, I had to laugh when I read your comment as I then realised that I had never done cik&cap before on real jumping obstacles! I have only done it on trees and so on. No wonder she follows my hand direction and jump away.
I hope the weaves becomes faster, exciting!
Ohh.. I so wish I could train when she is in the mode for it! For tricks I always do that (having the kids playing at home) and it is more fun for both of us. But when I have to walk to the park to train her I can’t bring the kids (it is pure stress and makes it impossible to train concentrated). Therefore I can only train running contact and sequences when my husband is home.. very annoying. But I suppose it all changes the children are older! Or, we have to buy a house with a field like you! 🙂
Yeap, it’s true that it’s sometimes hard to organise trainings that way… -- especially when you have just one dog 🙂 When you have more, you can just focus on the ones that are in the mood that day 🙂 -- And the competition puts them in the mood every day 🙂 Happy training!
Here’s our lesson 2 first session video, the height in the video is 12″. I will keep working on this with him, do you think that i gave him the cik&cap cue too late?
Thanks
Cool, very nice wraps when you’re in time with your verbal cue! But yes, you’re sometimes too late, try to get into a good habit of saying it very early (as soon as he is out of the tunnel) already now, it’s even harder to change it later!
Toby’s multiple wrap@ 12″ height, im planning to work a bit more on this height. most of the sequence running is at this height right now, i will get the video uploaded tmr and then you can let me know if he’s doing ok on this height.
Thanks a lot
Perfect! It’s amazing how well he is using his body! You can as well go higher for multi-wraps, but keep 12″ in sequences for now, until you get earlier with your cik&caps!
Basic skills for Arrow, he did not understand running ON the carpet! Silvia,what is my next step?
Wrong video, I am having a rough time…
I will quit now if this is right or wrong!
Cool, he sure RUNS! Next step is a wide plank (or two normal planks side by side), rewarding all running, jackpotting best hits. And then raising it some after every 3 to 5 successful sessions on each height.
Yes, he is whippet wanna be!
This has been the problem with extension/collection even when we try the course in #2. I am not fast enough!
Once you master those sends and commitment, it will be much easier to be fast enough, I promise!