We're starting with real sequences today, you'll get a new sequence every time and we'll always be running them in parts, starting with a small part and then adding more&more obstacles, just as you can see in the video - reward where I rewarded and then start from 1 again, meaning that you'll always be doing the whole sequence only on a 4th try or so. Whole sequences will be pretty long, to get the flow, but do NOT run a whole sequence again and again - you can run little parts several times, but the whole sequence only once or twice. Always run it without the dog first and only when you really know it, try with the dog. After every try, PLAY, give a dog a break to rehearse the next sequence on your own and only then try again.
Don't keep running the same sequence for 2 weeks!!! You can either think of another sequence on your own or keep working on multi-wraps and sends (from lesson 1 and 2). Also, don't forget to keep working on weaves and contacts, we'll get back to that later!
And Bi on the same sequence to show how things should look like on a low and then higher height:
1. introducing straight lines: after all the cik&cap work, it's time to introduce some straight lines and extension jumping too. Set a straight line of 2 or 3 jumps between two tunnels (or simply use one if you don't have two), start with some cik/cap to tunnel, cik/cap to tunnel, then straight over the first jump to cik/cap on a second jump back to tunnel, then two straight jumps to cik/cap on a third one, cik/cap again on a next jump etc. - just think of something, putting more and more straight jumps in between one and another cik/cap. See a video and again another example here:
2. sequencing: start with cik on 1, run in for a front cross between 2 and 3, ask for cap on 2 from the landing side, RUN for cik on 5 (extension jumping on 4), another cap on 6 and finishing with cik on 8, rewarding in the direction of 9.
3. bang the see-saw game: if you did the "closing drawers and doors" trick, then you're all ready for this new game. If you don't have a see-saw, you can use a small plank with something underneath so that it moves when the dog pushes it with front legs. If you have a see-saw, either lower it almost to the ground or support it so that one end is 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) off the ground and have them push it down with front feet - you can then raise it somewhat more off the ground. Do not promote 4 feet, 2 feet is better to teach them to push. Jackpot for most powerful pushes and eventually stop rewarding the gentle touches. Reward away from the see-saw, you want a push&go (I'm not doing very good job on that in the video, I forgot to bring better treats for that - a toy would actually be even better). ONLY work on this part (step 1 and 2) for next 2 weeks (no 4 feet yet!) - I included next steps in the video just to give you an idea what's the plan 🙂
I'll be answering your comments till Friday 29th. Then I'm leaving for EO and have the camp after that, so we'll be on break till 15th August so that everybody can catch up AND you can practice cik&cap some more. We're introducing straight lines too today, but if you only started with cik&cap when the class started, you still need to do quite some work on that anyway - especially exercises 1 of lesson 1 and 2! You can also keep adding height... So, plenty of work for everybody! The second week of this lesson will be from 15-21st August, with no video commenting in between. I like those breaks as they take some pressure off and I can always see a huge progress after the break!
Silvia this is our last slalom training, Acqua is faster with the chanel method, thanks to you we are retraining it 🙂 and Acqua is having soo much fun…
And this one with the sequence… Acqua is turning wide in 5, I did another sequence doing number 5 from the other side and she was better, am I doing something diferent?
What do you mean when you say do you prefer front feet for the see saw? Do you mean 2on 2off? Acqua does 2on 2off in the short plank with a target, should I used for the real see saw?
Wouah Ana, so nice. I wish I could train as long as you and Acqua. With Karmen I have to stop every few minutes and I cannot make a daily session longer that 3 times 4 minutes…
Silvia,
is it normal for a 7-months-puppy?
Hi Celine, thanks 🙂 I have two dogs, well rigth now I have 3, my older girl had puppys and We still have one at home… I do one excercise with Acqua, then Samba, then I play a little with a ball or tug with the puppy, so they don´t do sessions more than 3 minutes long 😉
He visto que vives en Columbia. Nosotros vivimos en España. Estamos empezando un proceso de adopción y planificamos hacer los tramites para un niño columbiano… Tal vez nos veremos un dia?!
Un beso
Sure, you don’t even want to do more than that with a puppy!!! That’s definitely more than enough!
ok then I have to be patient !!
The difference is she comes from another angle and starts her turning on flat already, so this approach is actually easier as the one with full speed from 4. You need to practise this approach (also mirror imagine) that is problematic -- she actually got really tight after you repeated a couple of times. So just do some repetitions when she is too wide -- from the same approach. But she is actually mostly very tight, considering you have bars that high already. Why are you turning her left on 2? It doesn’t make any sense, right is much shorter AND easier for her, so there is no doubt right is faster.
Getting there with the weaves, great speed, keep closing it up! To see what I mean with front feet pushes, see my instructions video on see-saw, step 1 🙂
Hi Silvia,
Here where we are by now (we were so happy to have 2 more weeks to get through all of our assignments!).
-- RC: I got the point (that I was supposed to throw a ball without running myself !!) only yesterday while making this video. So you’ll see the difference !
On this exercice what am I supposed to tape for you (everything, only those that are representative) ?
-- sequence 1: I’ve made it last week and have noticed some of my errors that I could correct in sequences 2 (done yesterday).
-- sequences 2b-c-d: we’ve made it only once (to keep our sessions short and intense), the one you’re vizualizing.
-- sequences straight lines: how can I make her look in front of her instead of barking at me?
Looking forward for your advices.
Nice to have you back and hope you had a good time at your camps. Hopefully I can join it next year, maybe with Jonina ?!!
Celine
Wow, looks great -- and FAST! Great job with weaves! But as the channel is getting closer, make sure you are not practising too much (max. once a week), because of her age. For the see-saw, I would make it lower for now, to get harder pushes on lower see-saw first and then go from there. For RC, it doesn’t matter if you run or not, the important thing is the dog is not running with you, but runs full speed after the ball. I think this is not her full speed yet, so work some more on that, try different toys and starts (from a restrain, from a tunnel, from a send to a wrap etc.) to see what makes her run the fastest.
Great job with sequences too, very nice turns -- other than on 6. On 6, you don’t cue the turn well enough, so she jumps too wide. Try to be at 6 before she is and show it with your right hand to precue the front cross -- you do your front crosses too unexpectedly for her to be able to read it and respond to it with collection. Try to precue your front crosses with opposite hand, it really makes a huge difference.
When sending a sequence, try to send some examples of problems you had too, I can help more if I see the problems as when everything is perfect 🙂
Barking and looking at you means her obstacle focus is not good enough. But from the video, I would actually say she is pretty good at it already, she pulls well to obstacles when you’re running, only tunnels are hard as you need to slow down -then she starts barking at you. Try doing some more sends to tunnels (lesson 1 exercise 3) to get rid of that.
All in all: really great job! Would be great if you can come for a camp! Laura with Shape is coming too, would be great to see you all!
Thank you for your comments Silvia.
I understand everything except the body pre-cue for cik&cap. I tried to vizualize again all participants’ videos but I still don’t get the point… Could you describe me what gestures I should make or would you have a video?
For my videos I’ll send you more of the representative problems I meet but you already know the big picture D:-).
PS: when you mentionned #6 which sequence were you talking about?
I was talking about the sequence that is first on your tape -- not the extension-collection exercise we did, but the cik&cap sequence. And yes, of course I have a video, it’s right above 🙂 , in the instructions 🙂 See with which hand I show the cik/cap jumps and compare it to which hand you use.
thank you again. this time i understood !
Great job Celine! She is fast! Would be great to meet you two and Laura at Lolabuland! 😀 I’m really looking forward to that! 😀
Hi Silvia,
I am working on the suggestions you gave us on our sequence. When you say in your directions to ask for a cap at the landing side of 2, aren’t you cuing extension if you go beyond the plane of a jump? The only way I can do that is to beat him to the landing side and face him completely. Is that what you mean? My inclination is to cap and do the FC from the take off side. Can you explain how you make that choice? BTW, don’t know how I read that #2 & 6 were to the back of the jump but I have corrected it. Will send the tape soon.
Thank you!
Exactly: if you are on the landing side, you need to face him to cue collection and the reason why we are doing this sequence that way is to teach them to read collection cues also with the handler on the landing side. If you stay on the take off side for FC in this situation, then the dog needs to go around you to get into the tunnel as you are in his way -- AND you end up more behind him if you needed to get somewhere after that tunnel. So I would definitely choose landing side in this situation. If you can’t be there enough before him, you can still precue collection with the right hand when still moving in -- and while he is collecting, you should be able to get in. I would choose FC on take off side if I were going back in the direction of the 1st jump, but not when going into the direction of a tunnel.
Super! I understand completely. I will send the video soon.
Silvia,
Stella is a very shy with the Bang It game… shy with the cupboard doors and drawers and also everytime we play it on the Teeter it is as if we have never played it before… In the city, where we take classes most of the year she has gotten accustomed to that teeter…
but most of the time, especially in trials where she doesn’t know the teeter, she stops for what seems like forever at the tipping point and needs LOTS of encouragement…
here is Bang It from yesterday--she starts timid as always, but then she’s happy to bang it by sessions end
Next is a little Run To the Yellow -- Silvia, do you think this is useful at all? The goal obviously is to eventually only reward when she gets all four feet in the contact…
and lastly is some more of our remedial kik&cap with two jumps
the sun is out now between storms--so we are off to train!!!!
Dinah
Keep working on her confidence with things that move… Bang it game is a good one, try to play it on as many different see-saws as you can get an access too. The other thing you are doing is how I trained teeter before, BUT then you ALWAYS need to hold it (I mean not all the career, but always for months -- until the final goal is achieved). If you sometimes hold it and sometimes not, then it’s contra-productive as it only makes the see-saw unpredictable and even more scary. So I would leave it for now and rather play with bang it. And the last video, I can’t see, I get an error message.
Thanks, yes, I will continue only with Bang It because that really is her issue to get over… I don’t know what is happening with the last video, it is working for me… but skip that one, because now I have this one below:
She is tighter with kik than cap…
could be my fault, the way I am handling, too slow, and maybe I am late with saying cap…
I think she understands collection, but not that really tight wrap… should I go back to working on just a post? clicking for hind end wrapping again?
Tomorrow she leaves me for vacation : ( we are going where she can not go…
maybe I can get in a little more before the thunderstorms today
--Dinah
PS: I left in a lot of the tugging between sequences because this is truly amazing, a few weeks ago she would never tug around agility—only in the park playing and running free—she is really beginning to connect agility and all kinds of toy play rewards!!! …well, when she is in the mood, but more and more
Great, definitely lots of progress in her motivation and speed. Wraps could be tighter yes, but they’re definitely getting better, it’s only the last one that is really too big. Try to help with body language more, you can show the last jump with left hand to show front and cue collection with body language too. Those extreme wraps might still be hard for her, though, try to still work on multi wraps -- you can do it on a jump now, but maybe with somewhat lower bar, to make it easier for her to learn how to jump that way.
Have a nice vacations!
Yes, as I just told Dawn we have been doing jump wraps right before the DW and I think it has helped inject more fun and speed into the kik&cap concept for her…
But I have a question… I don’t understand, I can’t visualize what you are asking me to do with my body language on the last jump:
*you can show the last jump with left hand to show front and cue collection with body language too.*
facing from the take-off side of the jump, you mean I want to send with the right hand and pull with the left too, facing the jump???
maybe there is some piece of video of you doing it I could look at to see what you mean… (I will go back and look at that sequence video anyway to see if I can see it for myself)
thanks thanks thanks, Dinah
PS: did you see how well (strong and consistent) she is doing on the DW in my Intro Video on RC II??? I hate to leave her now she is really getting it!!!!!! This morning (our last time before vacation) she was even faster and stronger in the contact… no time for video though : (
Yeap, let’s check the instructions video and compare which hands we used for which jumps 🙂
Sylvia, How do we know when to raise the jumps on Cik and Cap? i.e what are we looking for from the dog’s performance?
Thanks, Kathy
Try to watch some videos and see when I say “you can raise the bars now” vs. “I think you need to go lower” 🙂 -- In short, I raise the bars when the dog meets the criteria (collects nicely, lands close, with front feet turned in the right direction) in pretty much any situation (handler position, approach angle, approach speed etc.).
Here’s part of my lesson 3. I totally forgot the tighter sequence when I arrived at our fairgrounds. I thought I knew how to set it up, but had it wrong. Anyways I included all the bloopers and mistakes. The seond part is the seesaw bang it game. He really wants to do side legs on the seesaw and we’re trying to fade that and get more front foot hits with enthusiasm. This particular seesaw had a weird feel, but before I move to the next step here would like to get a little qucker and better understanding.
Nancy and Nero
Next time, try to set the two tunnel entrances closer together, so that he comes out in a straight line for the jumps. On this set up, you need to deal with correcting his line back to the jumps so much that it’s hard to work on extension vs. collection. He also looks somewhat tired, the speed was better on a video you posted last time. But the wraps sure look good! 🙂 And yes, stay on this step for the see-saw for a while.
Thanks so much. The tunnel thing is easy to remedy. It was indeed a lot of work to shape that line coming out of the tunnel, and wish I had thought of that myself! The wraps are so much fun. Going through all the little steps to get to this point is such a payoff. I ran my old Pyr Shep through this sequence and was shocked at how bad her turns were compared to Nero. Not only does the wider turn slow her down, but she also slows down because she doesn’t know how to use her body in that way. I’m so glad for these online classes. With your attention to detail and all of the student videos we can really get a concrete understanding of each of these steps especially compared to our own selves before class.
Nancy Creel
Here is our video of Maia running course #2 from lesson 3. We’re having a few issues as you can see. I am not sure if I indicated the wrong things to her with my hand or body position? I’m not sure, but this has been happening more frequently lately. I am working on cik/cap with her around trees and such, and that is going better than before, but she seems to have lost her focus on me lately and is looking for obstacles to take on her own when we run a course. Any suggestions? I will make a video of the first course from lesson 3 tomorrow 🙂
Our weaves are coming along nicely. I am happy with her progress there. She misses some entries here and there, but she is completing them with more and more distractions than she was able at the beginning of the course.
The bang game is coming along slowly -- she’s a bit unsure of herself with it, but she does do a full teeter in competitions with a 4 on. I will keep working on the bang game with her some more.
I’m really enjoying this class!
Oops, I forgot the video:
I have very easy solution for all your problems 🙂 Turn her in the other direction on 2 and FC to push to the tunnel 🙂 Turing her left on 2 doesn’t make any sense, it’s much longer that way and it doesn’t make any sense by-passing that jump then, that’s why she is taking it. And to avoid possible wrong entry and even more importantly, to avoid being static and pulling -- front cross and push! In general, you need to run more, this is maybe 60% of her speed, she is just jogging around, looking at you and barking. Go for more speed, run more, push more -- it’s more fun for both, the dog and the handler. Just try it and then you can time the two: this jogging+pulling option vs. running+pushing option. I would be interested in time difference too! I think that if you run more, she will also be circling less and won’t be pushing that much to the other side -- let’s try and see.
Looking for obstacles sounds great, would absolutely want to see more of it! Of course, you also need to teach her to come when called, so try to reward that too, but looking for obstacles is a good start for a good speed: the dog can’t run full speed if she keeps her eyes on you all the time, as she does in this sequence.
Hi Sylvia and classmates -- I am going to attempt to post a video at long last. I hope it works. As you will see Paddy is a very enthusiastic teammate who deserves a younger and faster handler, but he is stuck with me. It is amazing how well you can see handling mistakes on a video. I really don’t help the poor boy that much. Anyway, I hope that these will be sufficiently clear for you to help me with my abysmal handling. Thanks.
Anita
And here is another one taken today:
I don’t get knocked bars when I am just practicing wraps but as soon as I attempt a sequence the bars come down.
Cool, very nice speed, great obstacle focus and some very nice wraps -- when you say it in time 🙂 You are sometimes late and that’s when bars come down as he tries to turn when already in the air. Also, to make collection/extension exercise more about just collection&extension vs. fixing his line when coming out of the tunnel, try putting the two entrances closer together. Try to say cik/cap for the next jump as soon as front feet hit the ground on the jump before. In the cik&cap sequence, try to help more with body language. You’re fast enough and on all the important places, but not cueing collection enough. You’re actually even going too deep for those FCs on 2 and 6 and pull him in even more extension there: try to stand close to the wing of 2/6, facing him, showing the jump with the right arm. Reward if he collects, send him in another wrap on the same wing if he doesn’t.
Yeah -- they came through. I am not going to tell you how ridiculously long it took me to get these from my camera to my computer to YouTube and then here. I am sure it will get easier.
Hi Anita,
When I tried to watch your videos they are set to ‘private’. Could you please adjust the setting?
Thanks,
Maureen
Yeap, everything gets easier with practise 🙂
Hi Maureen -- thanks for letting me know. I did not realize that the private setting would preclude others from viewing if they had the link. I have changed it to “Unlisted” Let me know if that doesn’t work either and I can change it to “Public,”
but I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to.
And, Silvia, I am so sorry that I misspelled your name earlier.
I didn’t even notice 🙂 And yes, unlisted is o.k., private isn’t.
Hi Anita,
They came through just fine. Thanks for the lesson on posting. I’ll be posting my first video shortly and would have made the same mistake. Video editing and posting is all new to me too:)