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 🙂
voila une nouvelle video. je n’arrive pas encore a voir quand je doit lui donner un jackpot alors je me contente de la faire courir le plus vite possible sur la planche. j’espere avec le temps reussir a mieux voir ses meilleurs passages. 🙂 la prochaine fois je sort le clicker 🙂
Yeap, definitely time to start marking the good ones and jackpotting the best ones -- you are getting a nice variety of hits, from bad ones to perfect ones! You can ask somebody to click for you at first and then show you after every run where her feet were, just to have an immediate feedback on what you’re seeing. Taping and reviewing is good too. To avid running at the side, I would definitely recommend using a double plank (two DW ramps side by side, as you can see in other videos). And then you can really focus on her running only.
You can also raise it some soon as she is mostly running, not leaping.
Hi, Silvia!
This is a session from yesterday.
1,12, run beside the plank
jackpot 2,3,4,5,6,7,9,
8 rewarded and clicked
looking forward to your comment
thanks gabi
Great! Definitely ready to raise that plank some!!! And ideally, don’t click tries like 8, 12 or 13 anymore, only nice hits at the end of the plank as you’ve got enough of those now.
Hello Silvia!
Here are our plank sessions, finally I succeeded to download the video at YouTube. When I watched the video in slow motion I saw that both dogs have problems with jumping. The first session the dogs ran to a toy about 6 m ahead, after that they chased my training partner Anna who had a toy, yesterday I threw a toy a couple of times but changed to a toy in front of the plank when I saw that it caused looking at me/the toy.
The first sessions we only trained about 6-8 runnings every session but yesterday we did 16 per dog.
How do you suggest we should continue the training?
I think the tries when you throw a toy and do it in time are the best. Try starting them with a send around a pole so that you can focus on throwing in time (before they’re even on the plank) and then closely watch them run and mark the good ones. I agree some tries were somewhat leapy, but you got enough of good ones to continue like that, marking and jackpotting the best ones to lower the % of airy ones and then raise it some, but only when you get rid if the airy tries.
Silvia HELP!!!
I did as you suggested. For Marta it seems that it was a good idea, but what happened with Maya? I have trained cip&cap with both dogs (Maya is better) and Maya turned around the pole with great enthusiasm, but then Maya forgot everything about the rest. I took away the pole not to take focus from the plank, but she was just up in the air. It seems that she has not understood or has forgotten that the plank is there for a purpose. I tried with a wider plank, throwing toy and toy in front but as you can see -- it did not go very well. What should I do?
You’re still throwing too late and cause some leaps with Marta because of it (1:15 for example) -- and many with Maya! Throw it before they even get to the plank!!! Maya is leapy because she is expecting a reward for cik and looks up at you and the toy and is bouncing up in the air. Definitely use a wider board and throw a toy as soon as she completes her cik.
OK, I will try. I have waited with the throw because it is so difficult to throw straight from longer distance. It would have been easier if I could send them to Cik and Cap from longer distance, so that I could just stand calmly closely to plank exit. Then I could wait for them to come and throw before they hit the plank.
HI Silvia.
OK, I tried to throw better and sent them around a pole. It is really difficult for me to see perfect hits. I thought Martas were better than they actually were. Should I stop clicking? Now I click for what I believe is good, but when I see it in slow motion it is not good at all. The first about 8 times I throw the toy and the last times they had a “living” toy.
If you don’t see it right, it’s better to not click for now yes, focus on watching the striding and try to mark them with your voice and then review in slow motion how good or not your decisions were. It’s important you start to see it as you’re getting enough good ones that by jackpotting those correctly, you should be able to get more&more of it. Also, try to experiment with their starting point, maybe you can find a starting point that gives you best running? Running like the last one? Try to find a pattern in what gives you the best running, that would speed up a process a lot.
Finally managed to get my video working, hoping I don’t have problems uploading now after crashing my computer 5 times last night;-)
I started Nevis on carpet a few weeks back and he was doing some good running. At home my lovely husband made me full size dog walk! Yipee. So I started running Nevis on the planks. Within a couple sessions I noticed Nevis starting to reach his last stride to avoid the end of the plank after listening to your comments to others I knew it was due to my thinkness of plank. So I went back to carpet to get him back to running.
I now have a thinner plank but need to paint it to get some traction on it, that will be my next stage since I think he running well again on the carpet.
I have also been working tricks but after much frustration with video and computer decided to wait on getting that video together! Hopefully I can get some good reps in on the flat plank before I leave for 2 week vacation in Wales. Fingers will be crossed that he won’t forget all he learned while I’m gone. 🙂
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/shonamichaud?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/CqbAXdFyWLk
Ok so my video link doesn’t look right…I’m more computer illiterate than I realize. What am I doing wrong.
But apparently I can also maybe figure things out on my own. Let’s try this.
Looks awesome Shona!! Since I’m sick with food poisoning, and don’t have enough strength to train, I’m sitting here watching vids from everyone!!
Great! Very nice running! I hope your plank is ready soon, Nevis sure looks ready 🙂 Meantime, you can get more selective on hits, you can stop clicking for tries like 14, but you definitely want to jackpot tries like 2 (both 1st session). -- And I agree with how you rewarded the rest 🙂 Great job!
Waiting for the paint to dry as we speak;)
Question…Is it natural when switching from carpet to plank to have dog not remember what all out running is:) We have now had two sessions on the plank and I will admit the second session was better than first but I only got 3 out of 10 tries that I was able to jackpot and the other 7 were not even clicked because of reaching for end of board more than I want to see.(first session had 15 tries with only 1/2 clicked and one jackpot)
I assume that I should get him back up to what he was doing on carpet before I think of raising the plank any?
Not sure if I’ll have time to get any video posted before my flight but definately will when I get back.
Not really, it usually happens only if the plank is too thick, too narrow or too rocky. Make sure it’s not, do some repetitions on carpet first and then maybe try carpet over a plank next. And yes, you want running first, before raising it.
OK…I’ll try carpet on board as a transition. Board is only 3/4 inch thick and pretty stable on ground. There were a few times that he was running but due to striding placement missed contact, I’ll play with his starting place and see if that will make him more sucessful at getting good hits. But for now I’ll focus more on running form more than end of board placement. Once he is running well on board I will start getting picky about where he is hitting:)
Sounds like a good plan!
Just had another session of 10 reps, 1st 2 were not great but striding better, then I moved tunnel closer to help his striding at board entrance better for him and it worked! He had 2 running but high hits followed by 6 jackpots! Sometimes with Nevis (being the worry type, he just needs to get his head around something first before he can go all out:-))
Sounds good! Few more successful sessions and you can then raise it some!
Hi!
Here’s a video of our last 3 trainings. :S I don’t know if I’m on the correct way…
I try to post the video with my older comment but I’m not able to find it!! 😛
Oh! the 2 ^ indicates where the carpet starts and ends, because it’s difficult to see it on the first video.
Loos great now -- when you throw soon and far enough -- you’re often too late with your throw! You can start selecting for best hits now -- not clicking not so good ones anymore and jackpotting the best ones. If you found a better, thinner plank, you can as well switch to the plank now.
Hi all, here’s video of saga. The first video is running on grass, then running on the wide plank, shortly after I introduced it to her. You can see that she is hitting in different spots and not running fully. The second video is after consistaently getting 2 hits then adding speed--a send to a tunnel and me running with the toy. She has given me this consistent striding 2 training sessions in a row. The third video is the trick. You will notice one way is easier than the other.
Lots of progress since first time on a carpet 🙂 Still, she is sometimes watching you, it would be better if she had a focus forward, so try throwing a toy in advance vs. running forward with it. It’s easier to get rid of a toy as of being aead of the dog every time. Getting there with pivoting!
Hi,
weekend is over, so time to post our tries since Wednesday.
On wednesday I did some tries before I read your advice to use a tunnel before the plank or to raise the plank and I think they were o.k. (did not tape all).
On Thursday I added a tunnel before the plank and also raised it a little bit (but only a very little bit, because I have to buy some better things to put under the plank).
I think most of the tries were really good -- sometimes Blue still forgets to run over the plank 🙂
Here is our video of the 2 days:
On Friday finally Helmut did the runnings. He had some problems at the beginning with throwing the ball (I did understand him very good 🙂 ) but I think after some bad tries Blue did great again.
So, this is our Friday´s video:
Helmut and I, we both have the problem, we CAN see if Blue is running fast enough to have hind feet further ahead than front feet, and we can see if he would be in the contact, BUT we both can´t see the hind feet separation when he is running full speed (so we cannot Jackpot it). I can only check it later in slow motion (but too late for Blue 🙂 )
Is it enough to praise the tries with hind feet further ahead than front feet and being in the contact (at the end of the plank), or do I need to see this hind feet seperation all the time? (if yes do you have an idea how we can see it better?) I also think he wouldn´t be always in the contact only with the hind feet separation (saw in slow motion), so I´m feeling much better to focus only on the hind feet/front feet -- thing 🙂 and the position on the plank…(not good, right? 🙂 )
Thanks for your patience!
I´m sure you need a lot of time for all those videos and questions of all of us 🙂
PS: I´m also watching the videos of our classmates, but my internet (or youtube) is sooo slow, that I can always watch only a few videos.
Yeah, just focus on feet placement, his feet are always separated anyway -- not as much as usually with BCs, but I think it’s just the way he runs, Bu runs that way too and never has such a hind feet separation as Bi. Also, don’t focus too much on reach forward, I only brought attention to it to make sure people know how a dog, running full speed, looks like, but as you’ve got the speed, you don’t need to click for that as you can as well get too much reach forward (overreach problem we discussed on several occasions). Hind feet separation and reach forward are important at beginning stages, for people with hard to motivate dogs, but at this stage, when you always have both anyway, your major focus of course becomes feet placement.
Here is finally our first video, homework #3 tricks, Vissa, almost 8 months old PyrShep showing the use of her legs 🙂
We definately need some more cavaletti work, and some better boxes to use… I started it on too difficult level with some of those boxes being too high and some too narrow and those cardboard boxes were all over the place 😉 This was the best we manage after 5 minutes of training. Doesn’t look too fun for her if you look at her speed and enthusiasm on other tricks (they are not on fast forward 🙂 ).
But I guess now we really need to concentrate on that homework #2 It is so difficult for me to see how her feet go and where they hit on a carpet.. and I’m pretty sure I’m not jackpotting all the right hits.. Video coming as soon as I manage to edit that slow motion part on those videos..
Great! Love her speed and activity level, looks like a PyrShep 🙂 Great job with the tricks, looking forward to see her run. You can ask here how to get slow motion, just tell which editing program you’re using.
Woo hoo -- I finally have a plank! The best i could do was 3.5mx29cmx2cm. They only had one so i couldn’t get 2 to make it wider in the beginning. Hope it’ll be ok. Now to get painting & start our practice! 🙂
Cool! I hope she can stay on, you can help some with some kind of a chute…
Here is our first video. First thing is that there is a change of dog. Bigi tore out a nail and it became infected so I don’t know how long it takes to heal, so Sen will do the course (officially).
We show the running study exercises in half-time speed. Seems this is not slow enough but it is the only option in my software. In all examples, she is being restrained and is running towards a stationary target (usually toys, sometimes food). At first I was throwing the toy, but with a toy in motion it made her running seem really jumpy, even on the flat, no matter at what time I threw it. I am clicking correct runs (running).
She has done alot of work on the flat plank for many weeks. It is not an ideal plank because it is too short, but it was the best I could get (we have nowhere to buy that sort of thing). For this reason, I changed to the dogwalk plank. I think it works fine as she can run for longer on it, but see what you think. I show the other option I could use -- put flat plank on dogwalk plank. I have not tried her with more height than say 10 cm at this stage.
I show here some back leg work (Silvia you have seen these in PC3 videos but I include them for the others). I should say that in the 2on/off I was clicking for staying not leg position as she already knew that.
Nicole, it looks like you might be using Windows Movie Maker? If so, just click and drag the half time editing feature over the clip another time. Meaning double it up. You can do that many times and basically get it to frame by frame, but I have found that twice is good enough as that slows it down four times and is plenty slow. Good luck!!
Amy and Little Spur
*Sen is adorable! A schippe?
Cool! But I prefer the second plank option, the DW ramp is so thick that it creates a real jump for such a small dog. So I would start with the shorter plank as an extension of a real DW and then get rid of it once she is ready for the height of a low DW -- I guess it doesn’t create such an edge with the ground then anymore. It looks like you can already raise the plank some!