Here comes your new homework:
1. straight line as a serpentine: now that you mastered straight lines too, it's time to show the dog they can come in different forms 🙂 Let's try angling the jumps as you can see in a video, still working on extension vs. collection. Keep angling the jumps all the way to a serpentine. You should still throw in some wraps to keep them attentive to possible collection cues.
Showing the angling in 4 steps, but try to go even more gradually and make it a serpentine in 6 or 7 steps:
2. sequencing
With long-strided dogs, 10 will be hard - so you can simply take the other entry instead.
3. let's check how far you have got with weave entries: send in your "top 5" - choose the 5 hardest entries your dog found, the 5 you are most proud of.
Here is Synergy doing serpentines for the second session ever. I noticed that she needs me to stay and wait for her at the first jump as she exits the tunnel. When I ran ahead toward she did not take the first jump (not in this video). I think that is normal that she seems me through the jump uprights to take that jump. What do you think?
Thanks,
Marla
Also, this was her first time at a higher jump height on the sequence. Do you think she still looks tight on her turns?
It looks so easy for you and Synergy… Congratulations !
Thanks, Celine. She is a good girlie. Also, this is my third agility dog and I teach tricks and agility so it should be a little easier for me than if she was my first agility dog. At least I hope so:-)
Yes, it’s normal she needs to see you static over the jump as she comes from the tunnel to understand she should take it vs. pull after your movement. However, I would try to stay somewhat further along that line: still close enough to see her over the jump, but further along to be able to recall her over under more angle and be further ahead for the next jump. But she is doing really well now, you can as well try 4 jumps now, starting her from a stay or another sequence or from weaves etc. to make it look somewhat different, but still have her recognize the sequence.
Do you have an option for the height somewhere in between? It looks like going from 16 to 20 to me… 18 would be better. If your jumps don’t allow it, stay on 20, but do some multi-wraps and figure 8s again on that height first.
Thanks. OK. Here is our last video I can post until next week. I am heading up to our Regional Championship with the gang and trialing Spritz (Synergy’s daddy and Bu’s brother). Wish us luck:-)
This is Synergy doing weaves two different ways (starting toward me and starting away from me), adding in a wrap, tough weave entries with me close and with a rear cross and then all together -- tough weave entry with rear cross and into serpentine.
Thanks,
Marla
Good luck!!! On a second version of a serpentine, you are again too slow 🙂 You need to move more, she is checking back with you after jump 2 -- you should be at 3 already by then, this will give you a much straighter line too. No other problems: nice weaves, nice wraps, no bar problems -- she is perfect! -- Now RUN!
Thanks Silvia. Yes, my dogs are perfect. I am not:-)
Will work on this more when we come back next week.
Thanks!
Well, running is all that is still missing!
We have worked on the serpentine handling.
She sure is FAST! Great job, keep angling those jumps and doing some wraps in between too. That one wide cik was because you were way too late with your verbal, of course, but she is very tight when you’re in time, so I think you can as well raise the bars some.
I agree, she sure has great drive! I enjoy watching her run. Nice tight wraps and great speed.
great little dog!
Here’s a note to ” everybody ” who is in AF class. 😀
When you post your video on youtube and you didn’t ” Hide” it….
everybody who isn’t ” logged in” can see the video on the ” recent comment” page.
(For example:
RC2 lesson 1: Wende Saether, video Aug 28, 9.03PM and video Aug 28, 9,02 PM,
also Foundations 4: Gitte, video Aug 29, 9.43 AM)
I first tought I saw it wrong but then I asked Luc Smeets and Gitte and they noticed it too. Maybe some people don’t mind but if you do, change it on Youtube. Don’t make it ” private” because then nobody can see it, make it ” hide” (don’t know if it’s the good word on Youtube??) so only people who have the URL link can see it.
Happy training
Jonina 😀
Oh no, Gitte found out, it’s not because it’s not ” hidden” it’s because people post the URL link in the first 2 lines of the comment. Oops 😉
Thanks for the tip Jonina. I prefer to “hide”!!
When I upload my videos from the classes I’m in on YouTube, I select ‘unlisted’ as the option for the video. The ‘unlisted’ option means that only people with the correct URL can view the video. I don’t like the world seeing my lessons unless I want them too 🙂
Yes Tsuey I definitely prever that option too!
Thanks Ania I didn’t know how it was called in English. I also don’t like it when everyone sees my video’s unless I want them too 😉
But as I said in the comment above, the reason why everybody who isn’t “logged in” still can see video’s on the ” recent comment” page is because people put the URL link in the first two lines. 😉
No. We put it in the third line and …..the same thing again. The next time I`ll try to send the comment first and then the video, may be that makes a difference. I also don`t want everybody to watch my videos, but it happens…………
Recent comments are limited to first 8 words. Meaning that in order to avoid a video to show up, the link to the video must be your 9th or later word 🙂
Ok now we know! Thanks! 😀
Thank you! I began to think: Birgit, you are too stupid for this! So there might not only be hope for croatin sheep dogs but also for me.
Feeling stupid is part of the learning curve! Especially if you are new to video learning. I struggle with it all the time, but I know I’m getting better-I’m just not there yet! The video part is the hardest part for me!!!!
So true! 🙂
Oh, well, you couldn’t know! I didn’t know either until I asked my boyfriend who did the settings! 🙂
Hi Silvia and classmates, this is where we are with the slalom… We are now almost with the chanel close… We have being working on the entries from the jump at the rigth of the screen so the this time she had some misses from the other side.
Great job! Keep closing that channel and challenging her with entries and exits!
Hi Silvia and classmates,
Here is our weave-training from today. I put the best entries and the best ” stay in the weaves” parts in slow motion.
Jonina & Jin
GREAT job! Looks like you’re pretty much there with the weaves! Very cool! Time to try some solid weaves now next time you’re at the club if she doesn’t know them yet! But hey, what a weather you’re having, we could send you some sun and you can send some rain for my grass, it’s all yellow!
This is our serpentine training, Silvia Should I angle the jumps more in a sesion?Today I just did it with the jumps like that.
Acqua is throwing some bars, when you told me to re do… It was to do just the bad jump or do again all of the sequence?
thank you
Did you raise the height? She seems much wider as last time… You definitely need to throw some more wraps in those straight lines, just as you’re doing at the end of a session to keep her tight when you cue it. Because at the beginning, she is wide even when your cues are in time and supported with body language. You can slowly keep angling jumps, but no, you don’t want want to rush it, you can work on extension-collection meantime. For knocked bars, stop, reset and try again from the same situation (not whole sequence, start one jump before the problematic one).
Yes I raised 5cm the bars :(, in last serpentine video the second jump was at this height the first an third one was 5cm lower, she was doing good wraps at that height so I raised it, but I will lower the bars again 🙂 she is not wrapping well.
thank you
Yes, you can work this exercise on somewhat lower height for now and meantime prepare her on next height through multi-wraps and some figure 8s.
Ok Silvia, thanks 🙂
Here is part 2.
I found this a hard exercise, which means I need to do more of it. I found I couldn’t really tell if he was turning tight most of the time, because I don’t really know what his tight turns are when he is running fast and jumping full height. I also really struggled with running and alternating between asking for tight turns and just running. Glad we’re not competing yet!
Well, if you don’t know how his turns are when running full speed and on full height, then that means you’re not there yet 🙂 You need to run sequences on whatever height you currently are with cik&cap (with multi-wraps, figure 8s and extension-collection exercises). You should add height only when he is really tight on one height even when running in with full speed. It doesn’t look like you did that, he doesn’t seem to know how to collect on this height, so definitely lower the bars, remind him with some multi-wraps and then try the sequence again (on lower height, so that he can do his cik&caps right). Only run 1-4 first a couple of times and once that goes well, walk 1-6 and only then try the whole sequence to make it easier to remember.
Thanks Sylvia-I asked this question earlier, but couldn’t find the answer. Just to clarify-when working on cik and cap, I raise the bars when he is turning tight and going fast? I guess I was confused in my video because I don’t think he can turn super tight like some of the other dogs (bcs?) because he is a bigger, bulkier dog. But I did see him not turning tight at all which tells me he also doesn’t understand cik and cap as well as he needs too, especially on a verbal only.
Yeap, I think he can actually turn pretty well, but doesn’t know it on this height yet, I don’t think you did it on this height before? And yes, you need to start low and then raise it some after he is good on all the exercises (multi-wraps, sends to wraps with lots of speed and big distance figure 8s to practise wraps at speed) -- you need to do some of that on every height to give him time to learn how to jump that way.
I redid the exercise on 16″ after practice multi wraps and got much better results (no video-I think I’ve used up more than my share of your time on this lesson!) I think the multi wraps helped him a lot. I realize that I haven’t done c&c on the middle heights before trying to do this lesson at close to his height. I will do what you suggested-lots of work to do-but it’s really fun!
Sounds great! And yes, it’s important to progress with height gradually, max. 2 inches at the time and do all the exercises on each height to let them see how to do it on a new height, it’s a whole new challenge for them!
Here’s our first takes from lesson #4. I think she did really well with the mini-course, but we had some issues with the serp. Once again she wanted to really open up there and getting her to gear back down was tough. The grass was also wet, so I didn’t want her to slip so will work more on that in another session. I’m also having a hard time running on the wet grass!!
Cool! Great job with the sequence! What a nice wrap on 4! Multi-wraps, I would do on lower height first and then bring the bar up more slowly. Great extension and speed in that straight line -- and the beginning wraps and the one after the tunnel were beautiful too! But yes, coming from a straight line in a wrap makes things more difficult, so try that some more, cue it even sooner and show direction better, you were often too indifferent with your body language on wraps and I had hard time knowing which direction you actually wanted too! You definitely want to support the direction with body language!
Hmmm, yes, my dog is clearly better than me in many ways 😉
Understand about the multi-wraps, but just wanted to give it a try since we’d only been doing it inside and with one jump standard. Just testing to see if she understood the idea. I will certainly take it down and progress up, but was cool to see just how smart she is!
Ah, you’re doing pretty good too 🙂 , but on those three places where she turns the other way, I really wasn’t sure what your plan was. And yes, she definitely understood the multi wrap!
I didn’t really understand why she turned the other way either, but when I watched the video I can see why….oops.
She tries so hard for me!
What a speed-golden retriever you have ! Nice job
We did a little running around today and last night that I taped. I’m not sure what we are doing, but it is fun 🙂
I took Tibby on a long hike this morning and she was still keyed up all day long, so we did some training this evening. Now she is sleeping. Tomorrow is our appt. with the cardiologist. I’m nervous about what they might say. I feel like we are finally getting into agility. I hope they don’t say that Tibby can’t do it any more.
We haven’t worked on the weaves at all, so we’ll try to do that this week. It’s hard to get everything done!
P.S. Don’t feel sorry for Catty/Catalina (the cat) -- I try to put her in the house and she cries and scratches on the door until I let her out again. I guess she likes it when Tibby runs her over!!!
We have a cat who loves to come out and watch agility too!
Cool, she is sure playing better and better! To make that straight line easier, you can pull a tunnel more to the side, so that the exit is more into a straight line to give her a nicer, straighter start. And hey, you did some very nice front crosses on that sequence with two jumps and the tunnel! But yes, the cross at 3:13 got me confused too, you were cuing the jump closest to the camera with that cross and yet showing the other one… But things are definitely going in the right direction now! I hope for some good news from cardiologist too!
Well, Tibby had her echo cardiogram yesterday and chest x-rays. She has 2 faulty valves -- one between her right atrium and right ventricle and one between her right ventricle and pulmonary artery. The doctor said she should live a normal life and it shouldn’t affect her at all. So that was good news 🙂 I just have to keep an eye on her and watch for a change in her behavior.
Now I have to go because Tibby is chewing on my feet! She wants to go play!
That is good news! Glad to hear that she is going to be ok and that she can continue with agility and tricks!
Sooo cool that she can live a normal life!!!
Great news!!! I again loved your video, just too funny how Tibby runs over the cat and the cat didn’t mind! 😀 I think when you two will run your first competition you have to bring the cat too! 😀
Cool to see how she is going much faster, also into the tunnel! Go Tibby!!! And go Catalina! (And of course Go Cat!)
Hey Catalina, nice to hear this.
I am very glad to hear that Tibby will be ok. Can’t imagine a world without Tibby and her strange cat friend who likes to be run over!! 😉 🙂
Thanks guys 🙂 I’m really happy she’s going to be OK too
I just had a funny memory….. Years ago I had a nationally famous agility guy give a seminar here for kids aged 10-14 that were in 4-H. Since I was the 4-H leader I played as well along with all my volunteers. Anyway we were supposed to be learning blind crosses and we were supposed to zip in and out of the slalom to help the dogs with their turns. My dogs were already trained the way we are doing it now and their was no way I could get there. Anyway with the speeds that Nero is doing this right now there is now way I could get between the jumps to do a blind/front/rear cross.
Nancy Creel
Yeap, no need to cross on serpentines! You can get much tighter, more efficient line without the crosses!