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! 🙂
Silvia, this video training outs and for the first time more than one, I´m better with my right hand or Acqua undestand me better, with my left side I´m not so good… I don´t realize if I´m moving diferent, maybe too late.
Acqua is throwing the first bar this time, is it because my fault?
Thanks
Cool, that looks great! Bars can be a problem on outs yes, sometimes because you’re crowding the dog (too close to her landing spot), sometimes rushing (running too much in front and she is in a hurry), but I think the problem will go away once she understands the exercise well and knows she needs to clear it even when in a hurry to catch up. On the left hand, I think you don’t lower it enough and/or soon enough, that’s why she sometimes runs by it. But looks like you two will master the exercise soon! You can mix it up with some serpentines and threadles too to keep her attentive.
Hi Silvia, today we tried the sequence, acqua is doing good but she is some times passing under the bars and throwing some of them, do you think I need to do a specific work? Or Acqua with more experience will be better… I don’t like to correct her too much because she gets frustate very easy and beggins to do circles around me or even more wide..
Thanks
Cool, great job with the sequence! -- Only that the end was somewhat more difficult, the last two jumps are from the other side as you took them 🙂 Going under the bar, especially when jumping towards you or when coming from an extreme angle, can happen with young dogs. Definitely stop her for it, but to avoid too many mistakes, you can then either put two bars on a problematic jump or hang something on a bar (a towel or something) to get her attention. But she sure looks great, great wraps, great speed, great handling.
Ok, I’m still back on lesson 5. Too much to do!!! Rue and I did the handling sequence for the first time today. I thought it went pretty well the first time through, but we didn’t get the first backside and we didn’t get the threadle. We cleaned up easily though, so I feel pretty confident there. I still have jumps down at 16″ for her during the more intricate handling sequences. She normally jumps 20/22″.
We also tried the serp vs push vs threadle exercise. Serps are looking better with jumps parallel, but I also opened them a bit at the end for more confidence. Dang she really wants to bounce the last 2 jumps even in a straight serp…nut! The multiple backsides was really hard for us. I think we got it 2/8 tries?! Didn’t even attempt multiple threadles because just one is plenty hard enough for us still!
I really think I’d like to take this class over again with Rue. We have limited time between this class, trialing, and other things that I’m training her in plus our exercise/conditioning. I feel like we could still benefit from taking time with the multi-wraps since we’re still on no bar with those. As well as continuing with the other exercises since they’ve been very helpful for both of us. Did I read somewhere that it’s 1/2 price to take this class again? I am going to put Miles in the handling class 🙂
Anyway, here’s our video:
Haha, just realized I actually did sequence #6 this week instead of 5, oops! Guess I need to go back and look at the sequence for lesson 5 and try that one too. Well, I hope I did ok with the #6 one 😉
OH MY, I even did that one wrong. I’m so sorry. Hopefully we got some good info from whatever it is that I was doing!!!
Well, you made it look as if you’re starting her differently with a reason (not wanting to start her from a stay?), so I didn’t even comment it 🙂
No reason, just cannot read numbers apparently?! I will try the opening again as numbered just to see what happens and also will get to sequence 5, haha!
Great multi wraps! And yes, the sequence went great! For that backside, you run in too soon the first time, you should wait some more and run with her: and second time, you push too much… But very smooth and tight the third time! The threadle went really well then too: first time you’re somewhat late cuing that jump, especially as I remember she had problems switching back from handler to obstacle focus from handling class, so that was a good practice for her and she sure found it nicely then. I would definitely work on threadles some more, start with one, then try two and once that gets easy, go for three 🙂 You can also focus on just two pushes first and attempt the third one only when you master two -- it’s much easier then. You just need to find the right timing of how soon you can leave her go and push for the next jump without having her pull after you. Serpentines sure look great now. Bi doesn’t see any reason why not to bounce them either 🙂
And sure, you can take this class again if you want -- it is half of the price for those taking it again: choose the third option on the registration page. I’m opening the registration for Handling soon too.
Thanks!
I really feel like we’re learning so very much from this class. And not just about the agility aspect. I really think it’s good for us as a team to go back here and take our time this time with the foundations. I know we could get through the handling class with what we have, but I don’t want to push her this time. I’d really like to have more time to get better understanding and more confidence. Hope that makes sense! She’s really blossomed in the last few months at home and in trials. And I’d like to eventually see her speed at trials be the same as it is at home. When that happens, she’s going to be unstoppable 🙂
So thank you for your patience with us!!
Sure, there is never enough foundations anyway! I actually still do many of those exercises with my dogs. -- Especially multi-wraps, the pushes, threadles and serpentines, I really want them to be able to read those very well.
Hi Silvia,
Matilda and I worked on “out” today. I’m calling “round”. I can see when I’m late, Matilda doesn’t know where to go. Being late with cues is something I have to work on.
I’ve been getting ready for school to start and then starting school with my kindergartners. I’ve been too busy to work on our exercises. Now our time in this class is almost over. I’m going to try and work again next weekend and do one more post. Will we still be able to get onto the Foundations site after October 3rd to look at your videos if we want to work on things on our own? This class has been so much fun. There have been challenges. It took us awhile to get Cik&Cap. We still need to work on that. Thank you for all your helpful comments. You give each student so much thought and time.
Liza and Matilda
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV-u1xJ
Sorry, video here I hope.
Great job! Very nice serpentines and threadles! With outs, the most important thing is to never end behind the dog: you really want to be in front -- what can be difficult by the third jump, but well, you’re almost there! Very nice! And don’t worry, the class will stay open for reading&watching for a quite a while.
Hi! Here is Arrow on the sequence and push backs. We still have a lot of work to do on Serpentines and can only manage at angles. I think a combination of low bars and inexperience and we will get there eventually!
Wow, those sure were very nice independent pushes! He really pushes out great all on his own. He then sometimes pulls after you if you move too much when he is on a back side, that’s why it’s maybe hard to get 3 for now, but do keep adding more&more movement and less&less turning into him as that will allow you be faster. Considering how well you trained him to push out, I’m sure it will be easy to train him to also take a jump every time, even when you add more movement. But yes, it’s harder on lower bars. The sequence went great too, but I think we can make it even tighter. Try to do a front (or blind) cross when he is in a tunnel sooner and more to the side, so that you’re not pushing him to the middle of the jump, jumping straight on 3, but get him to jump it more to the right. Then say cap for 4, he is jumping too much left for 4, he can be much tighter. The rest was great, really cool independent pushes on 8 and 12!
Hi Silvia, this is our first training with the sequence of lesson 5. Sorry, I forgot to do it on a little more height and I sometimes forgot the sequence as such so we didn`t do it every time in the write order. Watching the video I saw that Fine must have been a bit too tired for training -- we normally wouldn`t have done agility then, but the moments we can do a video are rare and I didn`t realise her fatigue here. We also had difficulties with the tunnel entries -- Fine seems to have a preference for the left entry. I tried to run with her but didn`t manage to do it every time. And we did a cap at the end because there is our dog-walk just a few meters in front of the last jump -- I also didn`t realise this before…? Looking forward to your comment.
76/birgit-and-fine-lesson-5-1
Great, very nice and tight serpentine and very fast on sequence! I see you trained outs a lot as she is now pushing out on her own 🙂 -- that’s why I like to mix outs with serpentines and threadles, to make sure they are not just doing the last thing we trained, but stay attentive to what I’m showing and telling them to do. So it was good to reward her for coming to hand. You can then try this sequence again, with the same beginning, but then once end it with threadles, once with outs and then once again the way it was planned, to make her see she needs to listen even when she thinks she already knows where she is going. For the tunnels, yes, you need to run faster, but considering how fast she is, it would help if she send to the tunnel well enough to not incline towards you but pull in the first tunnel she sees, so I would practice this some more, first from a shorter distance and then adding more distance. The rest went well, very nice wraps on 10, but somewhat wider on 4, maybe because you’re on landing side… You can maybe try to tighten that up some, do some multi-wraps and rewarding close to make her see it’s just as important when you’re on landing side.
Thank you for comment. Do you think I call her name a little too often so that Fine doesn`t really know that calling her name means coming to hand and not taking the jump (in future times also the tunnel entry) in front of her. So should I only call her name in these situations? I`m actually trying to say less with more information. I think that I´m talking a lot with her but she always needs to filter all my words to get the information she needs. Yes we trained outs and serpentines a lot -- so we will mix it up now and we will add the threadles and then post the video. Would it be a good idea to post a second video of this sequence with 5 cm more height and with some training on wraps and tunnel entries in the meantime?
I think she was just trying to help and tried to guess… It sure starts like a push, so I think she recognized the sequence from 3 jumps exercise and tried to the same thing. Just insist you want listening :), challenging her by changing a sequence some every time so that she can’t guess it and reward a lot for listening. Also, in that 3 jumps exercise, try to start with a threadle, finish with a serpentine, or start with an out, do a serpentine, start with a serpentine, finish with an out: so different things on the same line, not only one line of serps, one of outs etc. -- So that she learns she needs to listen even when she thinks she knows where to go. You can of course use another word for coming to hand, to not confuse her with using her name in different situations. And yes, sure, you can post the sequence again!
I really don`t want to annoy you with my questions but I have to ask this: is it important to have one special cue for coming to hand? I would like to try only using her name and then being careful with using it on courses and there using it for coming to hand, for following me and for paying attention on me and what I`m cueing next. Is this a way you could agree with or would it be better to have a superspecial cue for situations where the dog has to come/to look to my hand ? I`d just like to have these cues fixed now while Fine and me are beginning to do agility and I never thought about these things before.
Don’t worry, it’s my job here to answer the questions! 🙂 And sure, you can of course use her name instead -- if of course you then only use it for handler focus!
Thank you for answering. I think we will have enough situations in handling class courses where I can train my cue for handler focus or if it is not required -- just being quiet. Thank you so far for this class…only fun with my dog and we learned/are learning so, so much.
Sorry, the first link didn’t work. Its the first time we try to work with vimeo. Here is our second try…
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welcome on Vimeo! 🙂
how is Fine’s health? did the vet find what is the problem?
i like the way she runs!
Hi Valèrie, thank you for your welcome. The vet didn`t find anything special, so he suggested that it might be a “technical” problem. We keep an eye on her breathing while training and it seems that it gets better and better (perhaps because it isn`t so hot any more..). Yes, Fine likes running and playing and jumping -- and I´m happy with her and the way she likes to work with me. But I watched all Videos of Doucette -- she runs very nice too. Will you be in Handling Class? It would be great to see you there!
for sure we will join handling class. 🙂
Hi Silvia:
Here is Bender’s Lesson #5: sequence and push arounds/threadles. We need lots more practice to get the multiple “rounds” and threadles. But we have made a good start and they are going well in a sequence when I only have to do one! I know with more experience I will be able to leave Bender to commit so I can drive more ahead down the line.
Shona and Bender
Great job with the sequence, loved the ending -- what an independent around and a nice tight ending line! The turn on 4 might be tighter though, you could of course use cap there as he needs to collect and maybe stay closer to the wing to control the line more: by being so far, you’re actually pulling him further out as necessary. Great threadles and arounds too, he has no problems jumping under extreme angles, but yes, you need to leave earlier to get the third around. But the two are sure going great!
Hi Silvia,
Here is our attempts at the sequence for lesson 5 (we only tried it twice). I am not sure that I put the obstacles far enough apart in the first set of clips and definitely not in my backyard for the second set of clips but that is all the room that I have. I felt like I wasn’t moving very much at times. Sometimes my commands are late. Nessa also ignores my arm in 19 and I think is instead reading my movement in the direction of the wrong end of the tunnel. Should she be reading my arm? Our arounds need more work. I was also having a hard time driving at the end to get the serp -- probably because of babysitting the around. In one of the clips I missed a few of the obstacles but included it anyway since I don’t have much video to submit.
We are behind in the lessons but will continue to work on the exercises when we can (especially lessons 5 and 6). We have lots of work to do on our weaves and contacts too. It is getting dark too soon and training elsewhere is difficult especially during the week. Soon there will be snow :(. I would like to continue with the handling class sometime but I am not sure how much time I will have to work on courses this winter. Last year I was lucky if I could train once a week due to weather and training facility availability. We will have more time for tricks though ;).
I have enjoyed this class and we have learned lots. I think that it has been a great help with Nessa’s foundation.
Good luck at Worlds Silvia!!
Teresa, Nessa and Taari
Ps. I tried the sequence with Taari in my backyard and it was quite interesting to see the differences and similarities. I haven’t been working cik and cap as much with her as with Nessa.
That sure was fast! More independent around on 12 would definitely make handling the end easier and her line tighter, so keep working on arounds. Nice wraps on 10, but those on 4 could be tighter, landing side handler position can be a problem if they’re not used to it, so train that some: do some multi wraps if necessary and then reward close to the wing for closeness. And yes I think you were slowing down too much for that push into the tunnel and that pulled her towards you -- run deeper and harder there to avoid wrong side of a tunnel and give her some extra speed.
I wish you a short winter and hopefully I see more of Nessa in another class! In handling, we run 2 courses per 3 weeks, so training once a week would actually be enough, but yes, tricks training is definitely much easier in winter as agility 🙂