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. I hope I have it this time.
Liza
Cool! So no zoomies anymore?
The last few trials we haven’t had a zoomie. I discovered if I massaged her shoulders, her neck, and behind her ears while we wait while the dogs before her are running, she doesn’t get worked into a barking over the top frenzy by the running and/or barking dogs. If she’s not barking, then I don’t get stressed either. I do do some little tricks (turns, bows, through my legs) with her to get her engaged. Any suggestions for her contacts here or suggestions about anything else??
Liza
Contacts… Train for speedy position and compete as you train 🙂 Zoomies… I actually really liked her speed 🙂 I like frenzy… I would probably try to channel it vs. calm her down… But then, I have this speed obsession… For me, fast is always better as slow -- even if in wrong direction 🙂
I love when Matilda’s speedy, too! Her speed in the Handling Class videos was great! I guess I want to find a way for her to be fast but to listen to me, too.
More thoughts on this. When Matilda is in a frenzy (she’s barking; she gets a wild look in her eye; she can’t hold a sit stay; she launches off contacts; and she may take off on zoomies.), she puts me in a frenzy. I can’t think. I want Matilda excited to work/play with me, but not stimulated into a frenzy by the trial situation so neither she nor I can focus. That’s my challenge, I guess, to find right balance for us, excitement to work/play, but also ability to focus.
Oh, that was such a good description of a PyrShep in their normal mode 🙂 Would be good if you could get that same attitude in training to then learn how to direct it…
Hey Silvia we had a really fun day! Tibby was very excited to play with me when I got home from work today. She brought me her toy and couldn’t get enough training -- even though it was really HOT. I have 3 fans going in the garage and air conditioning in the house with the door open to the garage, but it was still really hot. We would play/train for a few minutes and then I would have to stop, because I was just dripping and dying from all the running around.
I had Tibby do a little running on a plank. I’m horrible at throwing straight, so I tried a couple different things. There isn’t any room to get up a lot of speed, but could you tell me if we are doing OK? She knows that she is supposed to be on the plank -- she falls off very consistently on the last 2 tries, but runs back onto the board.
She really likes this game, so I would like to play it more with her, but not if I am doing it wrong 🙂
Thank you!
Yeap, she sure seems to like it! You’re doing it right -- other than you need more room… No damage it you play some like this, she is certainly not jumping, but you will definitely need to do it with more room and speed too…
It’s cooler today, so we will try playing outside this evening. Thanks for looking at the video 🙂
How do I keep her running on the board? She sometimes will run next to it. Problem? Or is it Ok? Yesterday I started trying to use a roll of carpet, but Tibby hated it, because it would move in the grass underneath her feet. So we went back to the board and she started running next to the board a lot too.
Just more practice?
Well, I’m way too lazy to spend the time on teaching the dog to stay on a plank as that’s not an issue anyway when the plank gets higher. So I never start with this width, I always use a carpet or a very wide plank for first steps. That allows me to focus on important things (speed and form of running) vs. staying on a plank…
Hi Silvia, hi classmates
First of all, congratulation to your great dogs!! It´s amacing!!:):)
Here comes our homework from Lesson 2 :
Independent weaves: we worked on harder entries sometimes with food (to get his brain on) sometimes with the toy
For the next step I`ll go outside to have more room ( teach to ignore body language and speed)
Multiwraps: Bono is still to wide at the cik ( my cap)when he has speed so we did a lot of them
The video about th RC will come soon
your students Gabi,Bono ( Amy)
Amy sure looks very happy to get to play too! 🙂 Bono is doing really well with his weaves, the entries are great, but yes, the weaves are not perfect as they move out of his way too easily… You can definitely put them somewhat closer though to make him work harder. Getting there with cik&cap too and the sequence went great too, it’s only the turn on 5 that should be better. Try standing on take off side instead of landing side of 5… Also, try to not bend so much as it makes it harder to start running after front cross if you bend so much -- not that you would need to run much in that particular sequence, but it’s a habit that it’s hard to get rid of. Nice drive for the tunnel, great obstacle focus!
hi all
Here we go..
As you can see murph goes a bit wide on one of the jumps,
We did one full run and then broke it down,,
Its just the Jumps
so here we go
cheers sinead
Very cool! What a good speed and obstacle focus! He is so cute running so fast with those little legs! That was a very good session, keeping it short, with lots of ball throwing and playing! Fun!
Thank…. He is getting faster and we are having fun!!!:-))
Will keep them short..
thanks sinead..
question about weaves, if my dog already knows how to weave (learned luring around each weave) but distance away and entry is a challenge (I understand why now…), do you think it would be worth a try to start over from scratch with the channel weaves?
Of course! Why not playing another new, fun game? 🙂 And it gets even better: you can still do weaves your old way in classes and trials, but meantime play some with the channel and the new learnt independence and entries will transfer really nicely to his existing performance once you are finished with the channel. It’s a nice chase that ball game anyway 🙂
voila notre entrainement de mercredi. je me suis amusé a travailler aussi un autre atelier pour varier un peu. le 2èm exercices correspond a la leçon 1 et la façon je le fait avec les deux haies si proche je devrait surement dire “out” comme ordre mais j’ai préféré pour le moment conserver “droite et gauche” car je compte bientôt éloigner les haies comme toi Sylvia de cette façon moi je serait entre les deux.
Cool, getting tighter and tighter! But yes, let’s try to spread the jumps some more to work some more on obstacle focus, she is still watching you a lot.
Fly looks like great fun 🙂 She’s so light on her feet!
Hi Silvia,
I need to know how is the process that you do to put the jumps higher, in my last video you told me to put the bar 10 cm high and make the wraps, i did tha, but Cairo didn’t see the bar and alway drop it. is this process correct, or should i do it diferent??
Thanks
Gabriel
I don’t worry too much about the bars when they’re that low, but if he just runs through, then you can’t practise collected jumping, so I would definitely try to make him see a bar… Maybe use food vs. a toy for a first lesson or two to put the brain on? You can also try somewhat higher jumps (but not more as 20cm) -- maybe that would help some?
Hello Silva and classmates,
Well, I’m a little behind. The weather here has been extremely hot over the last few weeks (in the mid 40s with the humidity) so it’s made it very hard to train anything without over heating the dogs.
Cik is going much better than cap. I’ve introduced a bar at 4inches. She is dropping it, so I will take it down and just lay it on the ground and see if that makes a difference for her.
She still does not seem to understand that when I say ‘cik’ or ‘cap’ or any verbal, that she should go and take that obstacle irregardless of where I am or what I am doing. (the handling system we learned here is positionally based, so if I turn, she should turn too, so I have some retraining to do with her now)
Here is our latest video with all our mistakes:
Good that you posted it now as there is a very easy solution to cap problems: placement of the reward!!! The way you often reward caps… -- like at 0:37 and 0:56 -- is NOT a good way to reward cap and is definitely the reason why she is so wide on caps before 0:56 (or at 1:10, 1:18, 1:24 etc.): she is very obviously anticipating a toy in that direction. 1:05 is how you should always be rewarding caps. Some very good caps in figure 8 and a sequence though! Commitment could definitely be better yes, but you don’t need to turn so sharply to not confuse her: try to turn very smoothly. Understanding that cik/cap means a send at the same time would definitely help too, so still do lots of exercise 1 of lesson1!
Here is Nessa Tik/Zap sequence video.
A few things I noticed while watching it and while doing it.
1. I am pushing/throwing her towards/around the first jump. She wasn’t always taking the jump and sometimes just turning around and going in the tunnel. Apparently she likes tunnels a bit too much 😉 and gets really excited when she hears/sees other dogs going through them. I need to work on “around”.
2. Late on some of my commands especially the last tik.
3. Forgot where I was to reward at the end so I was not doing it in the right spot.
4. Nessa barks too much for my liking. At least during the sequence she is still thinking and not barking at me. She seems to be barking when turning most of the time. I really don’t like it when she just barks at me. I am also worried about her barking when she is running (is she just excited, will she go over the top, can she hear my commands). Also if she barks it is hard to practice in my backyard. Do you think that the barking will decrease?
Is it time to raise the jump bars?
I think that I need to redo my video of the multi-wraps as it didn’t turn out well.
As for contacts:
Teeter -- 4 on. I am at the stage where she is driving to the end and someone (or me) is feeding her at the end but not letting it fall completely on its own but it is close.
Dogwalk and A-frame -- running contacts. We are taking the course but have had some setbacks. We are currently back to flat mats. I can post a recent video if anyone would like me to.
Thanks
Teresa
Hi Teresa, At this stage I am curious about any beginning running contact video. I’ll take the full class when my pup is old enough to go to full height on the dogwalk, but for now am trying to build a foundation.
Nancy
Hi Nancy,
How old is your pup? BC? I’m curious as I also have a BC youngster.
Thanks,
Maureen
Hi Nancy,
I was reading an earlier post and saw your pup is 8 months. He’s cute.
Maureen
Thanks--How old is your BC?
Great! Really fast and tight! Looks like you can add some height yes. You are mostly soon enough with verbal cues and the start is o.k., you don’t really need “around” for that as you can push with body language -- I didn’t even say it with Bi. It’s great she likes tunnels, but yes, she needs to understand she needs to do what told first in order to get to them! To tell you the truth, I don’t even notice barking, so I can’t say if it usually gets better or worse… Is it better when you work on something like exercise 1 of lesson 1? If so, you could try rewarding more and more unpredictably, the expectation of a toy often keeps their mouth shut… Also, maybe some calming tricks like heeling before the start would help?
Hi Silvia, Here is a quick video of Nero after making the adjustment you suggested. He’s not hitting the down ramp with his backfeet first and probably cannot with this setup. When this gets solid I’m planning on adding the extra 6 ft of mini aframe lying flat, and then start to raise that set up when it gets solid. The first three attempts were bad and he had a lot of speed going around a wing. The last 5 are better and I’m starting him from a stand about 2m from the end.
Nancy and Nero
On first few attempts, the major problem seems to be a ball thrown somewhat late and not straight… So do add more&more speed on the approach by setting him further&further back. But hey, you sure got some really nice running! I hope you made a big deal out of it, try to also mark (at least with “yes” if not clicker!) when he is running at the end of a plank!