O.k., things are getting somewhat more complicated now! Now that you mastered the serpentine, we'll look into other options with that set up too, but first, let's train some of
1. out/around/back
Push the dog on the other side of the jump by stepping with your left foot if the dog is on your left side towards the left wing/stanchion (and the opposite), saying your verbal and rewarding after he takes the jump. Every next try, help somewhat less on the take off side and move more on the landing side - see the video. This is again the question of commitment: the dog should understand to take the jump you showed even if you are already moving away already (helps in serpentines too!)
2. serpentine vs. threadle vs. pushes
Now let's try two pushes in a row on serpentine setting. If that goes well, you can try a threadle too, using your collection body language, together with cik/cap before the dog takes the jump and then "come" as soon as his front feet hit the ground - rewarding from your hand for coming to you. Once that goes well, try two in a row: when the dog comes to hand, don't reward but cue cik/cap for the next jump and then reward the "come".
Once you can do two pushes or threadles in a row, try three. And if you manage to do three, you can even try four! It's harder for every next jump, so make sure you progress slowly so that the dog is mostly successful. Start with a wrap to tunnel to have good speed. Mix in some serpentines too to keep them attentive to your body language and make sure, you train them both ways, so that the dog exits the tunnel on your side of the jump sometimes and sometimes on the other. The pushes and the threadles, sometimes do with the dog on the left, sometimes on the right.
Don't worry to master it in 2 weeks, it takes more than that, but do try to do some of this.
3. sequence: a little more complicated this time, so again, run it in parts and definitely walk it several times first, rehearsing your body language AND when to say what! - It gets complicated now as it includes everything we learned so far (wraps, extension, sends, serpentines, out/back/push).
Let's start with a wrap to the tunnel, then blind or front cross when the dog is in a tunnel, show 3 (you can call it "right" if the dogs knows directionals), cue collection (front cross) and use "cap" for 4, then 5 is "cik", send to tunnel and cue extension for 7 (meaning: RUN!), push for 8 (say "out/back/push"), RUN for 9, wrap 10, push/out/back for 12 and handle 13 as a straight line (it's a serpentine from 12 to 13). Have fun!
And here is my video of the sequence without 10 and 11, I completely forgot that part! Looks like I should be printing the courses out too! But I guess it can help some anyway, I also included serpentine, threadle and pushes, I hope I got that part right! 🙂
Hi Silvia,
This is our last video for the Foundations class. As you can see, it took me a while to realize why Matilda wasn’t taking 8 from the back. Then in the middle video section I left out that portion of the sequence by mistake. Finally, we got all the pieces put together in the third section of the video. Thank you for a great class. Matilda and I will need to continue to work on these exercises by ourselves. Liza
Great beginning, really nice lines, in time with front cross and cap on 4, somewhat late with cik on 5 and great around and ending line at the end. And yes, you definitely want to have her on your right for 8: around is always push out in my direction, I don’t use it for turning the dog away so if I had to have a dog on left for 8, I wouldn’t even say around, but come and then left + rear cross after they would cross the line. But being on the other side is of course better 🙂 Keep up teh good work! And remember to keep sessions really short, this one was somewhat too long as she is slowing down towards the end.
Thank you again.
Liza and Matilda
Hi Silvia, just a short video with our threadles. What do you think about how we managed it, what about my arms, my tempo, my position? With pushes I´m always a bit too slow to be in front of Fine -- we will train them a bit more and then send a video. Is it o.k. to send videos for foundation the next 14 days? And…most importand and this time just in time: GOOD LUCK FOR WC!!!!!!
Looks good to me! But do vary all the time what you do as she likes to “guess” the sequence, so maybe do a threadle on the first and then a serpentine on last two jumps etc. just as I wrote in my previous answer. Outs are easier on higher bars, so maybe you can raise them some again. But this class is finished now, so no more videos, I won’t be on internet for a week anyway. Thanks for the good wishes!