O.k., time for your first homework!
1. find a way to make your dog run as fast as he can, tape him from the side and study his striding in slow motion or even frame by frame: how far apart his hind feet are, how far forward hind feet reach over front feet, how long and high the stride is, how his back looks like and where his head is: many people think you want low head for running contacts, but in fact, you want the head look exactly the same as when running full speed in the fields 🙂
2. have a dog run over the plank, tape him from the side and compare it with the video above - tape it at the height you're currently at. If you're just starting, restrain the dog before your plank, carpet or whatever you're using, throw a toy and release. Slowly bring the dog further away from the plank to really have them come to the plank with full speed. Mark anything that looks like running in the fields from the first video, jackpot when feet are hitting at the end of a plank/carpet (where the contact will be), but reward anything that is running. Don't forget to click it or at least mark it with your voice! I prefer clicking, but you can also first use a voice and start clicking later, when you know your dog's stride better and can predict it better.
This is a good check-up for those who are already running their dogs on a raised plank and a good stride-study that will help you see and mark the correct striding better for those just starting. Once you see your dog is running nicely, with an even stride, hind feet separation and hind feet reaching further from front feet, you can put a brick or something under one end of the plank and have them run over slightly raised plank - I'll tell you when you're ready based on the videos you'll send.
And yes, we're for now throwing a toy in advance, letting the dog chase it, in order to get full speed. So yes, the dog is rewarded every time with a ball - so make sure that you really make the best tries even more special, use excitement in your voice, a play of tug on his favourite toy or food if that's his real preference - in short: make a party about the really good ones and don't worry about not so good ones - just throw that ball again! 🙂
3. to make it easier for the dog to understand what you're clicking for on that plank, we'll be teaching some tricks that are important to help them understand how to use their feet and that you might be clicking them for using them. The two things you will try this time is cavaletti work - walking the dog over drawers or boxes on the floor - and teaching the dog to step with front feet on an object and clicking for any movements of hind feet: the final goal is a full circle in both directions, but first click even for just a weight shift and then go from there.
Post a video with all 3 assignments, first two in slow motion please!!! - But PLEASE cut out all the parts where I can't see the dog: because seeing just the plank, and that is slow motion, is absolutely no fun - and you can't imagine how many planks in slow motion I saw by now!
Also, read all the comments and see as many videos as possible, you can learn A LOT through videos and comments of others, that's why we do it in a class form in a first place!
Two pictures showing what I mean by hind feet reach: hind feet must land further ahead from where front feet were:
Two pictures showing what I mean by hind feet separation: hind feet must be hitting two different spots as far apart as possible (vs. staying parallel, hitting the same spot).
To take the explanation of hind feet separation and reach forward even further, here is a discussion we had with a first class on it, this is my comment to those two videos:
Experimenting with a full low dogwalk
Experimenting with throwing his toy
My comment: he doesn’t run fast enough 
– That’s my answer to 90% of problems with running contacts, so you will probably hear that a lot in next few months Any BC, running full speed, is deep down the contact if doing two strides on a dog-walk ramp, period. Even my PyrShep who is 37cm (14.5″) does the down ramp in two hits and I even know a Papillon that is trying to, despite we would prefer him to do 3 hits Meaning that if a BC does 2 hits and is too high, he is not running enough. That’s some general info for everybody, I’m just using your videos to discuss this topic as they show some very nice tries and some “not running enough” tries.
On most tries, you can see his hind feet come just shortly more forward from where the front feet where. Normally, when the dog runs full speed, hind feet will land significantly further ahead from where front feet were – just like you can see in “experimenting with the toy” video at 1:16, 2:16 and 2:27 tries for example – those were very nice!!!
The faster the dog is moving, the further ahead from front feet hind feet will be landing and as a consequence, you will have MUCH bigger length covered as if hind feet hit where front feet were – meaning that if Bi’s front feet are above the contact, her first hind foot will be in the middle of the contact and the second one will be right at it’s bottom. - While if the dog’s hind feet only come to where front feet were, he is missing the contact in this situation - instead of getting a perfect one
That’s exactly why I always get suspicious when I hear people saying their dog is hitting with 4 feet. With a BC size dog, running full speed with good hind feet separation, it’s pretty much impossible to fit all 4 feet in. 3 is possible, but if they can fit all 4 feet in that small area, they don’t cover enough of an area and when they will be higher, all 4 feet will be out of the contact. Bi on the other hand is a typical example of the dog covering LOTS of an area, meaning that even if her front feet are landing in the middle of the down ramp (yeah, she desperately wants to do it in one hit), the second hind foot will be in the contact, as you can see in this video:
Complicated? Don't worry, it gets easier when you start to see the dog's stride 🙂
Hi Silvia and classmates,
I started today with running in a field.
now i saw my video and benji will not running full speed.
can i try to run with him and trow then the toy ?
I already commented in introduction page, so check there. But yes, sure, you can run with him: race him to the toy and see if that makes him run more.
today i start with your session ( the video what i make was from yesterday ) for look how i can motivate them.
to-do-list tomorrow : Buy a clicker, make 2 planks of 4m x 30 cm and buy a carpet haha.
and train the tricks and the running things!
Hi, Silvia.
I hope this is where I am to post video. As you know, Da Vinci and I lost the fast running when I switched from 24″ plank to a narrow plank. It’s very difficult to get an 18″ plank. Today, I experimented with a few different setups to see what would get us back on track the best way. Here we try double wide plank with carpet over, double wide plank with NO carpet and an actual lowered dog walk. Can you advise what set up and how to proceed based on what we had today? I have the real dog walk rented for 4-5 weeks so I can work with setups that are easier to manage than the one we had. Callie is running a full lowered DW. I don’t know where to start with Da Vinci since he is most comfortable on the wide setup but seems to be gaining confidence on the narrow planks.
Huh, yes, the speed is not so good now anymore not even on a wide plank… Also, you should go for somewhat more strict criteria now, I wouldn’t reward 6, 11, 13, 17 and wouldn’t jackpot 8 (looks like “accidental one foot touch”) or 15 (he is trotting -- also 18, 19, 20, 21) -- 22 then looks better, maybe try running with him more? Did you try a toy then?
I would recommend double plank with no carpet, running with him and throwing a ball to get more speed and make it more fun. Once he starts to like the game more again, I would go back to low DW, starting him out of a tunnel and running with him and throwing a ball and see how he does then. To me, he looks like he is not all that much into that game as he is when running sequences, we definitely want that speed (or more!) on the plank!
Ok. I only used food because I didn’t want to change too many things while experimenting with the setup. I’ll do a session tonight with double plank and try using a ball.
Hi, Silvia.
We played again tonight but used a ball to get running. I used a squeaky ball for jackpots. He was going crazy to play the game! Maybe my food puppy is turning into a ball boy! I’ll try running with him more too. We started with double plank on a 16″ table…seemed like he was running, but not adjusting his stride to get hits. Is that correct?
That’s when I decided to drop it down to 8″ cinder blocks so I could find the starting point that gave him good hits…was that the right decision to make?
Should I stick with the last setup or try to get back to 16″ quickly? The lowest setting on the full dog walk is 24″
Wow, that’s much faster! 🙂 But well, he is leaping at first, his hind feet are together and all. But it could also be because he starts from stand still right in front of the plank… 8″ gave you much better running. What if you try single board on 8″ now? If if that goes well, try a mini DW set-up with 16″ table and up and down DW ramp and if that goes well, you can try DW again, but stick with the toy, it definitely looks much better!
Hi, Silvia. Here is where we are. It has been a tough transition from the double wide plank to single , but I think we are making progress! These are our 4 sessions since my last video. I included all so you could see how things have progressed. I only edited today’s session for slow motion so it wouldn’t be too long. Initially, the ball was getting us running, but he decided that running ON the plank wasn’t important so I tried using the MM out ahead to get running ON the plank and jackpotted with a squeaky ball. What do you think?
I’m trying really hard to be picky now that he is motivated by the ball more than food. Before, he would stress if he had so many misses so his enthusiasm now is taking some adjusting on my part. I’m glad he turned onto the toy/ ball, but it is very different for me.
As of today, I think I am being better about rewarding and I almost feel like he is testing me a bit with the leaping. He either leaps or runs. And when he leaps, he is looking back at me with a naughty teenage boy grin. Do you think he is getting it?
I don’t know if I should continue working at this height or try going up.
Looking forward to your comments.
Kristin
Well, he sure LEAPS when he leaps!!! 🙂 I think I would work on this height some more, to reduce % of leaps some before going up -- should be easy then. Also, how about using a tunnel for forward focus and throwing a ball after it, would that work? With mm after it at the beginning maybe?
Ok. I’ll try that. Before everything crumbled with the switch to the narrow board he was running to a tunnel so I think he will like that out there again. Am I working with him correctly? Seems to me the good ones are pretty good and the bad ones are quite bad. Is this progress?
Yes, this is a good learning situation to have: so good ones mixed with so bad ones 🙂 But of course, we need to lower the % of bad ones now.
Hi Silvia and classmates!
Finally it’s Aug 22! 😀 Our plank is not finished yet, so I can only post nr 1. and nr 3.
Nr 1: Running on a carpet ( She comes out of a tunnel). I think nr 1-8 are good and nr 9 and nr 10 are not, am I right? She sure loves it 😀
Nr 3. We did the puppyclass 1 so here are some old video’s, couldn’t find the cavaletti video but did find the ” 4 in a box” video and the ” circling around an object” video. Is it ok to post these old video’s or would you like me to make some new ones? We didn’t do it for a while ( we are busy with new tricks from you latest ” tricks for better thinking skills” video 😀 )
Here is the ‘4 in a box’ video:
And the ” circling around an object with 2o2o ” video
Jonina & Jin
I really love the picture with Bu and Le (?) I have a picture just like that from Jin, my friend say’s she looks like a bunny when she does that 😉
I can’t see your first 2 videos for some reason. Is there something with privacy settings or are they working for others? That “circling around an object with 2o2o” I can see.
Yes i have also the same problem !! i can also see the 3th tape
I’m having huge problems with both of our computers!! I will try again. Thanks for noticing!
And here is the ” 4 in a box” video:
Nice video’s Jonina,
i started with a big box he knows now what to do there.
Jinn runns verry nice!! tomorrow i will start with Benji with the plank.
Wow, Luc jij bent snel 😉 (Wow Luc, you are fast)
Thanks!
Good luck with the plank, let me know how it goes (on FB when I’m online) 😀
Cool! Very nice running! She is running nicely in all 10 tries, so I would reward all and I would jackpot 1-8 as not only she is running, her feet placement is great in those tries! A very nice start of RC! You don’t need to tape the tricks again, you can post old videos, but I would definitely recommend you do some rear feet tricks again every other day to get her thoughts in the right direction towards understanding what you’re clicking on that carpet.
Hello Silvia and classmates,
I started with our first order of lesson 1
We have found a better field where we could practice.
I have only done 4 times. because we were in another place where the soil was not good enough.
We had a good look at him.
It struck me that Benji are a lot more speed. I see this longer fit because he makes are pretty close to the hind legs to get his tail carries less than normal
am I right? Unfortunately the quality is much less if you must slow down as it was asked.
I hope that i make a good tape,
greetz Luc
Yeap, that sure looks fast! Try to include the carpet into the game now. Happy running!
Hi Silvia,
the carpet shop was closed today, i started with the seesaw planks that we had at home,
i say the go go go and Benji runs fast.. he had verry nice spots in the middle of the contact and that was the jackpot. also some good things. and some bad ( jumping because i throw bad )
i’m verry pleased, i would tape it… but the accu was empty…..
tonight i make a new chance.. then i put the video and you can tell me that i need to buy also the carpet, or we can do the plank ( seesaw )
How long and wide in ft and inches should the carpet be? I think it should be 12 ft long but confused about how wide it should be. Thanks!
The wider the better 🙂 Minimum would be 70 or 80cm (Google says that’s 28 inch 🙂 )
Hi Silvia, hi all,
we did the first two exercises (just running in a field and running on the plank), but unfortunately my camera had a problem and only taped the “running in the field”, so no plank video today 🙁
But he did very great I think 🙂 I will tape tomorrow again.
Here a short video of the first exercise -- I think he was fast enough, right?
Just one question for the plank -- do I have to stay beside or behind him to throw the ball, or can I go to the end of the plank and call him, while throwing the ball? It´s just because he is running much faster when I am in front of him…
Thanks,
Christina
To start with, you can be in front, but try to move back gradually as 1.) it’s easier to see how he moves from behind vs. when standing next to the “contact” and watching from above and 2.) you’ll mostly be behind once we get to real DW 🙂 He won’t run full speed after the ball if you’re not in front?
Yeap, looks great, nice hind feet separation and good reach forward. Now we need the same on the plank!
Hi! Ok, today the camera taped our plank work 🙂 I have made one video for both excercises to have a better comparison. I think Blue is running faster without the plank thann WITH the plank. I think he didn´t understand at the moment, that I ALWAYS want him to run over the plank 🙂
The first 4 tries I did it being in front of him, try no. 1 was beside the plank, no. 2 was better and no. 3 and 4 was a jackpot I think. Try no. 5-7 I was also in front of him, but standing on the other side (it seems to be his worse side).
Then I tried to stay behind him, and I think he was not slower (??)…so o.k., in the future I will do it that way. I hope I can see his good tries better, because at the moment I can only see it on the video in slow-motion 🙂
I also tried it with running beside him, and I think this was also ok.
Here is the video (first the exercise from yesterday, then the plank from today):
We will start exercise 3 (the tricks) on the week-end, when Helmut is back.
Hm, not the best plank to start with, it’s so narrow that running over it will get even harder once you move him further back -- and you should be moving him further back soon as this is not his full extension yet as he is only starting right in front of it. He is definitely running, no leaping, but not in full extension. Can you do this stage with a carpet? Or another, wider plank? Or two planks side by side?
These are already two planks fixed together, but I will buy a third (or also a 4th) one. It´s not so easy to get such a wide and long plank in one 🙂 So one more handicraft work for Helmut on Friday 🙂
These are two? How wide is what you’re using now? And how long?
It is about 50 cm at the moment. But I have already told Helmut we have to change or make it more wide. I hope we can do it today.
To keep him busy: longer would be better too 🙂
Hi,
our plank is now 4 meters long and 1 meter wide, but now I have a problem with throwing the ball in a straight line 🙂 4 meter long plank and a lot of running space before makes it really difficult for me.
And I´m so much concentrated in throwing the ball, that I can´t see the “Jackpots” good enough.
Do you have an idea?
Here are our today´s tries -- I think Blue is doing great most of the time, IF I am throwing the ball correctly 🙂
We also did the cavaletti today, but didn´t tape it. I will post tomorrow.
Cool, that looks great! I agree with what you rewarded/jackpotted. 13 I would reward, but not jackpot as he has some less hind feet separation there. To see his striding better, try to send him to a wrap (or a tunnel if you have one), so that you don’t need to run then and can focus on throwing and watching the stride -- that alone is difficult enough at first 🙂 so we’ll add running later on.
Thank you! I will try to find a way to see his strides better (today´s method was not the best)
Today we did the “tricks”-exercises at the beginning and my camera taped it 🙂
Blue is not the best tricks/clicker-student, but I´m sure it will be better, if we are doing more.
This is the video:
Then we did the RC, but unfortunately today was not so good like yesterday. I tried to place the ball some meters in front of the plank, the first 2 tries were good, but then we had a lot of bad tries 🙁 I would also have a tunnel, but he is not running into the tunnel with full speed, when I am behind him.
After 12 tries with the ball placed in front of the plank, I did go to the end and called him and threw the ball…this was better, but not perfect.
So I think tomorrow I will try it again with being behind or beside him and throwing the ball -- this was much better -- it seems I have to learn throwing, running and watching him 🙂
Here is the video of today´s tries (it would be better to delete and forget it 🙂 but o.k., not every day can be perfect)
Yeah, he is not ready for a static toy yet, keep throwing it. If that helps to get better successful rate again, you can as well raise the plank some. Also, you can still try starting him with the tunnel, even if he doesn’t go full speed in, he will sure have full speed after it (because of the ball) and as a consequence, his speed into the tunnel will improve too. The cavaletti would be easier to start with if you made them lower so he is not as tempted to hop over. And with pivot work, I would try to keep the treats away, he is so focused on treats he isn’t thinking much.
Hi Silvia,
Here is a video of Billie -- running on the plank and chasing his toy for the stride. Clips maybe are not the best.
Neil.
Cool, very nice running, great speed, great hind feet separation and reach forward. When taping him on the plank, try to set the camera so that I can see the whole plank to see his entire striding. He seems to be running evenly also on a plank, but bigger picture would be better for future videos. Reward everything that is running and jackpot the best hits.
Great, thanks Silvia!
Here is our video of the first half of lesson 1(running field & plank/plywood). Bella runs fast, and seems to have about the same speed & stride both on ground and plywood. Reviewing this comparison has really helped me to “see” how she moves!! Now to train my eye to catch that and the good hits in “real time” when we are out there.
After watching this video I got to thinking what you say about leaping, not fast enough or plank issue. Bella does have some leaping issues. She is running fast, but maybe with some stride inconsistencies. So maybe my plywood set up could possibly be part of the reason? In order to have a 12 ft long piece, the top plywood is 8ft long x 28 inches wide…..the bottom piece is 4 ft long x 22 inches wide. I’ve split the difference and have the bottom piece centered with the top. They are secured by a 2x4 frame underneath giving the total length strength & support for when raised. Do you think this slightly narrower bottom piece could be contributing to her leap? She does have some real nice runs to the bottom, so I wasn’t sure. (I could get the top piece cut to the same width,22 inches, if you think that would help) Or is it just more repetitions and better marking/jackpotting should see the leaps fade away?
We started working with the clicker training circle trick today, not quite ready for prime time yet 🙂 Will set up for Cavaletti work tomorrow. Will submit this portion of the lesson later on.
Thank you Silvia, Nancy & Bella
The good thing is you are getting some really nice running and some really obvious leaps, so it should be easy to mark it correctly and get rid of the leaps. The successful rate is high enough to continue like that, some leaps are actually fine as they can learn the difference that way. 5 you can reward, but not jackpot. 8 was nice too, I might even jackpot it at this stage, because of nice hind feet separation and 13 is deep enough to mark it for now too. Try to experiment with starting points some to get a good one that will give you best hits. You are getting the best hits when she flies the beginning some: what is a good sign as that probably means she will have nice, symmetrical, 5 strides DW, flying both apexes and doing one stride more on each plank.
Hi Silvia…this video is from today, our 4th session with the wide plywood raised to @ 4 inches. The leaps are pretty much only on the first few runs. Bella’s stride, hind reach & leg separation and contact zone hits are much more consistent. Over the past 2 days I played around with start distance…3,6 & 9 ft..and found 9 ft to give us a better consistency on her stride & contact zone hits. All of these runs are from around the 9 ft distance from the plywood.
The first 10 are with Bella on my left (where I have consistent ball throwing w/ball in right hand)…in these runs I vary with restrained or slightly ahead of her for the starts. In #11-15 Bella is on my right w/ball in left hand…being right handed my throwing is not as accurate w/ball in left hand. Bella can be very ball focused when it is next to her, so I throw w/opposite hand….but I’ve been practicing my left hand throws. If I start ahead of her like in #15 I can get a more accurate throw to therefore keep her running straight on the plywood.
Because of the editing not letting you see or hear my response to each run I have tried to put comments on each # run with how I marked & rewarded each one. Am I marking/rewarding/jackpotting these runs correctly? At what point do we raise the plywood and how much? Is there anything else you think we should be doing at this point? Thanks, we are both having fun and Bella is even showing an overall increase in her drive & speed in other areas of our agility training…so much fun!!!
Looks good, I think all the leaps are actually caused by too high and too late ball. Try to throw sooner than that to avoid it. Maybe the easiest would be to start her by sending her into the tunnel 9ft away from the plank and then throwing as she is exiting it? That would also allow you to throw with right hand no matter which side you’re at. Try and if it goes well, you can also add some height.
Sounds like a great idea with the tunnel, I think she’ll love this! Thanks!
Hi Silvia and classmates,
here is the video of lesson 1.
I started with a plank 50 cm wide x 2 meters long with a bowl of food always at the bottom. Now as you can see the movie I work on a plank 30 cm x 2 meters wide.
Can I switch to a long plank of 4 meters long x 35 cm or continue this work until I have 100% accuracy?
Sorry for my english poor!
Why did you switch to more narrow plank??? Does it seriously look to you as if he is running the same way on a plank as on grass after the ball? Did you compare length of a stride?
I would go to 4m long, 1m wide carpet, restrain, throw a ball and try to get the same performance on a carpet as on grass. Forget about feet placement and focus on form of running. I don’t agree with what you marked as not good vs. good at all, your criteria is he does full stride on a plank and that plank is too short for a full stride anyway, so basically, you were only teaching him to shorten a stride. It’s very hard to impossible to maintain that behaviour in trials, so I can guarantee you it will fall apart -- probably as soon as you get to real DW if not sooner. So I would start from zero, forget about the bowl, use the toy, focus on running form, NOT the feet placement.
Ok, I came back with work, I did not understand the size of the plank therefore I have used a plak of 2 meters…
In the movie you see the running on the grass and on the carpet (60x360cm), I have ALWAYS rewarded with the ball, I stopped in front of the carpet, my dog gets distracted a lot with the movement of my body, you can see in test 3.
Do you think is better? Should I change anything? what do you think?
Yeap, that’s better. Definitely mark (click) as he is running at the end of the carpet/plank. I only don’t like 4, it’s very airy (he is striding too much up in the air) -- try to be careful to spot the air and not reward it right from the start. I would do 3 or 4 more sessions like that and then switch to a plank, but longer one as you had before.
Hi Silvia,
I worked for a few days on the carpet, you can see a part of the video below.
Immediately I haven’t clicked, but I confirmed by voice, then I put the clicker, but unfortunately I have not registered.
To prevent he was turning one’s head to see my throw ball, I put a straight tunnel before the carpet and threw the ball when the dog was inside the tunnel.
Do you think I must go on with this work?
In this video I would have clicked every time… the dog did not seem airy. It’s correctly?
httpv://www.youtube.com/embed/fyASJmDo5gk
httpv://www.youtube.com/embed/fyASJmDo5gk
Cool, looks more like it should now! 🙂 Keep working like that for a while to make him forget about old style of “running” and then go to a slightly raised plank, but you need another plank as you had before.
Hi Silvia,
I started working with the plank, after a few sessions with a tunnel placed before the plank and the ball thrown while the dog was inside the tunnel and I do not run, the dog was worse and he was very airy.
I thought of putting the ‘starting’ tunnel about 5 meters from plank and one jump after plank at a distance of 5 meters.
You can see from the video, the dog has improved in this session, I used the click (even if sometimes I was a little late with the click), but the launch of the ball occurred during the execution of the jump and not before to plank.
What do you think? Could this be a good compromise work?
Do you think the dog run faster on the move with me?
Yeap, that looks pretty good, you can continue like that and then raise the board once you get rid of the leaps completely!