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 🙂
Hello Silvia and Classmates,
i have 2 new tapes for you , 1 trick tape and 1 plank tape.
The plank tape is short because it starts with raining….
and the trick tape, Benji loves the clicker. but i need to learn it. i want to mutch from him.. so he will chance in a hyper dog 😉
Yes, you sure as missing many opportunities to click for pivoting, he is trying sooo hard! The secret of clicker training is to be generous and be happy with little things. The more you want and the longer you wait, the less you get 🙂 You can help some with positioning of the reward, rewarding with the head turned away from you as if he learns to look away, it will be easier for him to do more steps in one direction and eventually pass you.
Your plank is not perfect for flat work. I would prefer to do flat work on carpet and only go to the plank once you’re raising it. How long is this plank?
Hi Silvia,
This plank is i think to short, i dont know the meters. 1 think 2/ 2.5
But for now we do only the carpet 🙂 .. he had more succes with the carpet yes
Yeap, let’s use a carpet for now and meantime, try to get a better plank (3.8m long, wider and thinner) -- ask Jonina where she got hers, hers are really good!
Hoi Luc, (Lees: Bambam hahah)
Ik heb mijn plank bij de karwei gekocht. (Iets van 40 euro ofzo, wel van goede kwaliteit, kan ook wel tegen regen) Het is een:
Mutiplex plank 2.44 m bij 1.22 en daar hebben ze het voor mij in de goede maten gezaagd ( 4 planken: 1.90 bij 30 cm) Dus ik doe 2 planken tegen elkaar (3.80 by 30 cm) Dus dan heb ik 2 planken van 3.80 bij 30cm en doe deze tegen elkaar in het begin. (Het zijn dus nu nog 4 losse planken) Snappie? 😀 Anders hoor ik het wel op FB!
Groetjes Jenny ehhh Jonina 😉
Here are 3 days worth of sessions. I am struggling a bit to work out exactly what to do to help Gem more. With my first lot of video that I put on here last week I had her quite close to the plank and she would only have been about 3 feet away. I have been moving her further back and experimenting with different spots to start her. I didn’t show that in the video because I wasn’t sure if you would still see what she was doing well. If you want to see where we are starting let me know and I’ll do it in future videos.
I am seeing a lot of leaping over the end regardless of where I start her. I know some of my throws are bad but even when I manage to throw the toy early I think it is happening. The only times she looks better is when I start her quite close like the first time.
My plank is actually a flat aframe. Not sure if the length would make a difference but it’s about 15 feet long. In the last session I actually used a tennis ball and all the other sessions I used a tug toy but I used ones that would throw better. Not sure if the ball made a difference or not.
Looking at the video I think she is running fast but she seems to often do a massive stride to avoid the end??
Did you also try starting her by sending into the tunnel? That would allow you to throw earlier and might make her run more. Because even when she is not leaping, but running, she is running more up in the air as I would wish for… Does she do the same on carpet? -- I guess so as your A-frame looks very good for that purpose and no, I don’t think the length can make her run like that… You could also try racing her to a toy, maybe that would make her run more?
Hi All,
Got a thinner board and Chirp is getting more consistent with her stride. We had 2 difficult days, which I did not include in the video, where she missed the end of the board every time. Then it seemed to click. (No pun intended) Still using the chute if I take it away she does not run on the board. Clicker is still a work in progress. If I use the clicker I forget to speak, if I speak I forget the clicker. Working on timing still. Having fun. Thanks for your help.
Cool, looks like you can raise that board some! Getting there with pivoting, very nice hind feet movements already!
Silvia,
It seems like Chirp is leaping when getting off the board. Is that ever something of concern?
Yeap, the last stride indeed looks airy. It’s usually caused by too high edge: this one looks o.k. -- but maybe not for such a small dog… We had problems with leaping later on, could be that’s where it originates…
Hi Sylvia, Here is video of Twitch. The first video is the running and the plank work on a 2′ wide, 12′ long plank covered in carpet. She is running from about 6′ away. I plan to increase the distance which should increase her speed. In regards to clicking, this is what I saw/heard, late, good, good, early. The second video has the trick, you can see we have just begun this work so I’m clicking initial movement of hind legs.
I will send video of Saga once she is consistently 2 hitting. As I backed her up from the wide plank she began to one hit again.
What is Twitch running to over the plank? It looks to me like she is running to something too close and static as she seems to be slowing down, she doesn’t run the same way as on a grass. How did you get the running on the grass? Can you use the same thing for the plank? And hey, what a smart dog, she is offering really nice hind feet movements by the end of the video!
Is it okay for us to post updates?
I made a few changes in our set-up. I cut the grass much shorter so that the plank is not as bouncy. I put two 8′ planks together for a total of 16′ (~10m). I am now sending the dogs into the tunnel first.
This is Gus. Sending him to the tunnel has resulted in much faster runs. About 50% of them were much better, so I think that we are on the right track. The better I throw the ball and as I mark his good runs, I think our percentage of good hits should go up.
MUCH better! And yes, I agree, that gives you good enough % of good runs to continue like that. Make sure you make a big deal out of good ones and keep your records to make sure the successful rate is going up.
Same changes for Pippin’s session as for Gus’.
We are still working on her chasing toys outside -- as you will see, she looks to me instead of to the thrown toy. Next session I’m going to try sending her to the tunnel and I’m also going to use a toy filled with food.
After watching several other videos I now have the idea of turning this setup around for Pippin and instead of sending her through the tunnel to the plank, she may actually do okay if I send her across the plank and into the tunnel. Or at least mix it up. I’m going to try this tomorrow!
Yeap, if she pulls to tunnels well, you definitely want to try running her over the plank into the tunnel and then reward after the tunnel! You could as well use two U-shaped tunnels and just run from one to another over the plank, ignoring the airy tries and marking and jackpotting when she runs normally. Would be great if that worked, tunnel lure is easier to get rid off as food lure 🙂
Silvia, I don’t have a second tunnel (though I may be able to borrow one -- I’ll have to ask around). She has been doing nice sends out to a jump as we practice her weave poles. I may be able to add the jump before the plank. Or, heck, even have her go out and around a tree, then run back to the plank and into the tunnel like a race. I think she’d like that as she has a bit of a competitive streak in her personality.
Sure, why now, you can replace the second tunnel with a jump or a tree! Happy running! 🙂
New Attempts with carpet with Hasten.
All runs Regular speed:
Slow mo:
Let me know what you think.
Still looking at you… Time to get the ball out, there is really no other way to get good forward focus!
Hi Silvia, so here are we are with Lesson 1:
Carpet running:
I am posting for Anne this video of her experimenting with hoops on the up. Interesting that he seemed better without the hoops, but of course this is a low frame. We just wanted you to see this video as maybe the hoop is not properly positioned or if it just isn’t useful? (taken during the hurricane, LOL!!)
Her plan is to go back to the carpet and try to jackpot just good “a-frame” hits, meaning just back feet hits, to get him focused on those since that will be what he needs to do on the frame. She is thinking she didn’t do enough of that and on the flat was also clicking front feet hits just to get him focused on the contact, but he really needs to know it’s his back feet for the frame. Unless you have another idea?
Yeah, low A-frame is definitely not giving us enough good tries and almost no hind feet separation, so I would go back to the original plan, hiding an apex as long as possible and focusing on hind feet separation. Some flat work is always good and then you can slowly go to the table set up and then continue like that, making it look as little as A-frame as possible, softening the apex for the whole process.
Ok, great, thanks for your advice. Here’s last nights carpet running, I added on 2 feet to the carpet, to make it full aframe length (18 feet, as each board is 9 feet here..) I’m still working on seeing his rear feet in the contact.. I clicked a few that ‘weren’t’, LOL!
My question to you is: in all of these vids, he is running his carpet in 3 hits, i.e., 2 strides: will he feasably be able to reproduce this on the full height aframe? 5’9-10″ in the US, which I believe is taller than FCI of 5’6″. He seems like he ‘REALLY’ only wants to put one hit on the down side…
Thanks for the help you’ve given, this class is great, and I’m learning a ton!
He sure looks great on carpet! And yes, I think 3 hits A-frame is what you’re going for with him. Bi does it on 3 hits too and the interesting thing is that in rare occasions she comes from a bad angle, slips or something and ends too high -- she just adds another stride. I hope we can get this from him too, by teaching him to run even if it looks like an A-frame 🙂 And I think it’s perfectly o.k. to click&reward low hits too. Jackpot the best A-frame hits, but definitely reward running all the way down too.
Not to get too behind on homework, here’s my first tricks video:
And my second:
Ok, ‘new’ problem, sort of? He’s now doing 2.5 hit ‘carpets’!! This is interesting: his front feet land just before the edge of the carpet, then his BACK feet are the first thing to hit the carpet… leaving him low (though often with rear feet) in the contact…. posting a SHORT vid below to illustrate…
I’m calling this 2.5 hits or 1.5 strides, is that correct? AND, this will NOT be feasible on a real aframe, correct? Do I do anything about it at this stage? Just keep JP rear feet hits, and rewarding all running…?
Exactly, I would JP rear feet, reward running and not worry about the striding as such, it will change with height anyway. As you are getting running only now, you could actually add some height, but with a table and VERY gentle apex for now.
Getting there!!! 🙂 Love his enthusiasm and activity level, what a cool dog!
I was HORRIBLY sick for 4 straight days so was unable to do any training (couldn’t even get off the couch!) 🙁 Anyway -- my current aframe has wheels and wheel supports on it, so is not ideal to get to lay flat. I’m working on refurbishing my old aframe, which will be able to lay flat, but it won’t be done till next week (I hope). So I went back to 2 DW planks pushed together. I really feel as though I understand what to JP now…
More Tricks!
Raised DW 2 planks -- found I was able to throw a Wubba relatively accurately, yeah!:
Great job with tricks, it’s always so fun to watch him as he is so enthusiastic about it! 🙂 Plank work is going well too, I didn’t like his hind feet separation in the first video you posted, but it was hard to get more of it as you were starting him so close. Looks great on the last video though! Good to see you’re back!
For some reason, I couldn’t post ‘under’ your comment below…. but: here are 2 more vids… his DW attempts seem to be coming along ‘really’ well, it is exciting 😉 This one was coming from a tunnel to this set up for first time..
This one is coming from same tunnel, but I raised it some. It’s a bit scary on his toes when he miscalculates a couple of times in jumping on… yikes! We’re going to the chiropractor tonight to fix him up! I spent from 5-6:30 am this morning coming up with an elaborate table set up to prevent these edges to keep him from hurting his toes… I’ll see how it goes, and post later:
Another request: I have a question about cik/cap, which I’m trying to teach. Can I show you a video, either privately or on this site somewhere? Where do you want me to post/send it, if you are amenable? Am running into a problem, I was hoping you could help me with… Thanks so much, I’m learning quite a bit about striding and improving my ‘eye’ so much with this class…
Huh, yes, this set up looks too scary, I definitely wouldn’t use it anymore. Also, it’s actually not the best for A-frame training anyway as soon as you start to raise it as A-frame ramp is shorter and requires different striding. So simply wait until you can use the A-frame again and then continue with the table-A-frame set up.
Whoops, I guess it did reply ‘below’ yours… 🙂
Something wrong with these reply-buttons.. but Anne you don’t want to risk your dogs toes… Here is my dog whom I originally planned to attend this class with… 🙁
I agree! A note to everybody: make sure your set-ups are safe, that the dog doesn’t need to jump on too high, that it’s strudy and not bouncy or rocky, that it gives good grip and that the dog is catching the ball safely!
Hi Silvia, hi classmate!
My name is Gabi. I live in Klagenfurt,Austria.I´ll be taking this class with my 18month old AS Bono. He really loves to RUN:), but not to think.
We graduated the Puppy class in Dec. 2010 and are know in the AF class.
Silvia is keeping us very busy and we´re having so much FUN! FUN! FUN!;)
Here is our homework from lesson 1.
We`re working with two planks on the ground ( 3,8m 2cm thick,30cm wide)
I send Bono to a wrap( 3m away )
rewarded 1,5,6
Jackpot 2,3,4,7,8,9
I hope this was OK how I rewarded
Looking forward to your comments and thanks for watching
Gabi
It´s nice to see some students from Austria here too. So hi, Christina and Helmut you sure will love the Long-distance class.
Great job! Looks like a very good session, if he is always running like that, you can definitely raise the plank some. Great job with the tricks too! 🙂
IF…… than we´ll do that 🙂 Thanks gabi
Is he sometimes leaping too? Then you need to post those too! 🙂
Gabi…
Beautiful Aussie. Though I have to say, it looks like he really is thinking:) But I have aussie boys as well and I know what you are referencing…they would prefer NOT to think.
Thanks Shona !
Yes, it´s sometimes really hard for me to understand him.
My older dog Amy, is a Labrador Retv. and I worked with her Obedience in the highest level. She was so easy to train 🙂 My good old Amy is now 9 years.We are still competing and she beats all the young dogs.
Then came Bono and wow 🙂 !!, the house never was silent again!
But he is such a lovely FUN dog and we love him so much!
Hi ” teach” and all running classmates 😀
Fortunately we had good weather today, so we did two sessions! 😀
As you said we will try to do 1 (or 2 shorter) session (15-20 repetitions) a day, I will tape every session, is it ok to post one session (or 2 shorter sessions) a day?
Jonina & Jin
Oh, no, PLEASE don’t post every session! I just tried to give an info how many repetitions you need to do to keep up -- I don’t need to see it all 🙂 Post a video when you get a breakthrough, a problem, a new height or a question.
Jonina-
What are you using for your plank??
I am having problems with my plank being too think for my foot sensitive dog! He is often reaching with front feet to miss the end of the board if he isn’t in the right striding.