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,
httpv://www.dailymotion.com/video/k4YV8URX9SDklF2nGRa
Voici ma dernière vidéo de mercredi ( 2 séances de 10 passages). Je ne fais plus la DW qu’au club depuis 1 semaine. Là il n’y a que 65 % de bon. Je lui fais prendre 1 ou 2 obstacles avant la DW et 1 ou 2 après (plus souvent 1). Je jackpot les très bonnes ! Je lance le jouet après la zone et j’ai un peu monté la DW. Qu’en penses tu ?
En voyant ça, penses tu que je peux quand même commencer les turns à la maison ? et peut on peut mettre un seul ordre pour le tourne a droite et a gauche
Pour le A je préfère attendre que la DW soit mieux. Elle n’est pas encore toujours très concentrée et est encore très chiot !
My last video of Wednesday (2 sessions of 10 passages). I make DW only at the club since 1 week. Here there are only 65% good. I make her take 1 or 2 obstacles before DW and after 1 or 2 (usually 1). I jackpot very good! I throw the toy after area and I increased a little the height of the DW. What do you think?
Seeing this, do you think I can still start the turns at home? and can I put a single order for turning right and left
A I prefer to wait for the A frame that DW will be better. She is not always very focused and she is still very puppy!
You can of course use one word for both turns, but then it will mean to her to turn towards you and won’t work for turns away from you. I think you can start them yes. For the real DW work, make sure you keep a successful rate high enough and if necessary, change the variables back to help her succeed if you get too many misses in a row.
Hi Silvia,
sorry for that, I let the videos on the first page… Hope you´ll find it 🙂
We finally got another session taped. It has been raining off and on here all week so we have not been able to practice as much as we need to. I moved the planks yesterday. I noticed that the planks were on a slight incline as the dogs were running towards the contact zone. I wondered if this might be causing some of the leaping by Liberty. After moving the planks it looks as if she is not as leapy. Eli was running off the side of plank to get his ball so I put a couple of wings at the side and this seemed to fix this issue. I am pleased with the progress they have made this week given the bad weather.
Thanks,
Melanie, Eli and Liberty
Great! Definitely lots of progress! Eli is running beautifully and Liberty is running great too, other than on that couple of leapy tries -- but the rest was really nice running! Maybe it’s actually time to put the planks under a little angle, maybe simply using the incline of your garden first (see Ania’s videos, she is using that) -- and if that goes well, add an object under one end. Great job!
Hi Silvia and classmates,
Here are my videos. On all the videos there is a tunnel before the plank or carpet.
First video Deusty is running. (Slow motion)
My 2nd video : (Tuesday) Deusty is running on the plank.
Wednesday I didn’t have my camera. Unfortunately Deusty leaped every time. I was very sad 🙂
I read your comments and I decided to work on a carpet.
Thursday:
It was good to go to the carpet, your plank is too thick and promotes jumping, so he was leapy already on this video -- less so at the end of a session as at the beginning, but still, I think it’s better to work on carpet some and meantime get a wide, thin plank to start him on. This plank will only be good once you add more angle. Also, make sure you click in time and only when he runs well, low to the ground, he was airy on that plank even with hind feet separated (those first couple of tries).
Hi, Silvia!
Here is the film of Ninja running on the ground chasing his favouriteball:
And here´s a long film of all the sessions we´ve done so far, at a very low dogwalk. When I started to throw the ball in advance (instead of recalling him) the strides became longer and he started to do frontleghits/miss/leap over the contact…
We did a new session today with just one part of the dogwalk (it wasn´t possible to use all of the DW).
In the film I see that the plank is moving when Ninja runs on it…
I experimented with the distance to the plank, but I didn´t see any difference as to where he hits the contact or with wich paws…
Most differences might depend on how I throw. It´s really hard to throw straight and not too high 😛
This session went better than the last ones in the other film, I think??
How far from the plank do you think I should have him start from?
Does it matter wich paw he hits the contact with?
Yeap, that looks good! 🙂 Looks like you can keep throwing a ball when working on just a plank, but don’t do it on a real DW for now. Starting him at different distances is good.
And yes, any foot is o.k. as it’s actually important they know different ways and stridings to still end on the contact -- and Ninja sure has a great variety of hits, that’s really nice! I have a slight preference for hind feet as they’re harder to get, the dogs don’t understand those as well as front feet and as their handlers often prefer front feet too (as they’re more used to watch front feet as hind feet) that can create problems. So definitely reward front feet too -- but reward hind feet even more 🙂
What a nice dog! But hm, yes, throwing a ball in advance might not be the best idea for him as he has very nice 4 strides pattern without it and then goes for 3 strides with the ball. 3 strides are not too good, would be good if he stays on 4 strides, those were really nice. Maybe a flying ball will be a good idea later on, to test him to get on that contact even when very excited, but for now, I would keep working as before, but not always recalling (you won’t be in front of him very often!) but maybe using a static toy or a toy thrown after the jump if he pulls to the jump well enough.
Hi, Silvia!
Yesterday I managed to build a low dogwalk, but I had to make about 50 cm high (the one I used before was abot 30 cm). I don´t know what went wrong (I don´t really think that he was bothered by the hight or the rain but I don´t know…) When I tried to recall him over it he looked slow even if he hit the contacts… (When I look at the film I see that he used 5 strides.)
So I decided to throw the ball in advance to get some more speed. It didn´t work so good… I got 4 strides but not very many good hits.
Do you think I should continue to make him do 4 strides or should I let him do 5 strides and hit the contact more often?
I don´t post every repetition, but here´s some of Ninja´s runs (I like 4:4):
Well, I think his final performance will definitely be 4 strides, especially as FCI is shortening the DW with next year (from 3.8-4.1m to 3.6-3.8m). How long are your planks? I think working with 4 strides would be better, but it’s nice he can do it with 5 too, when there is a difficult approach for example, so you can vary it some, work with a thrown ball some, but go to a static one if you get too many misses in a row. Thrown toy tries actually didn’t look too bad to me, he has two perfect low hind feet hits, some higher hits and some misses, but mostly pretty close to being o.k. But yes, the last one was an overreach, so ideally, you wouldn’t reward that!
Hello,
mais que penses tu de la façon dont elle fait la DW ?
Veux tu du ralenti ? je pense qu’elle saute quand elle sait pas comment faire sur la fin de la planche et parfois elle fait pas d’effort !!!
Pour le turn avec un seul mot j’avais pensé à ce problème mais je ne trouve pas 2 mots pour ça (et c’est plus compliqué!)et le besoin du turn away arrive très rarement ….
but what do you think of how she makes the DW?
Do you want idling?
I think she jumps when she don’t know how to do at the end of the board and sometimes she makes no effort!
To turn a single word I thought of this problem but I can not find two words for that (and it’s more complicated!) And the need to turn away happens very rarely …
Well, finding two words should be easy, you can use left&right 🙂 But yes, you don’t need turning away very often and maybe with an obvious hand signal, it could be done even with one word. For the DWs, I would like to see a little higher successful rate, so I would introduce less challenges at the time -- you said you added high, start adding more obstacles before/after, change her approach etc. -- I think that was a little too much, do it more gradually so that you can keep higher successful rate.
Hi Silvia, I have been shortening my plank to DW lenght and it really helped. First video is my first try. Second video is from my last training yesterday. You can see a big difference in performence if she is staring from a sit or from a tunnel. FRom sit is pretty leapy. Tunnel is much better. But when I worked on the film I realized that is not what she is starting from it is when I throwing the ball. When she is coming from the tunnel I am able to throw while she is running. In the sit Im throwing in advance. What do you think?
Today we did the firts try on a slightly raised dw. Apart from the 2 first attempts she is running from a tunnel
To me, she looks somewhat uncomfortable on that plank and more leapy, with less hind feet separation. I think I would do some more work on a plank and then maybe raise that plank some or if you want to use DW ramps, put two side by side and fix them better, this one was somewhat bouncy and that often makes them leapy.
Yeap, starting the dog in a tunnel is great exactly as it makes it easier to throw in a good moment. So yes, that looks great now, keep working like this (with a tunnel), jackpotting tries like 9, 10, 13, 14, 15 and not clicking tries like 7, 8, 16 to start working on the importance of the end of the plank.
Hi Silvia This is our last DW trainning, How do you see her? most of the times she is too high, any advice?
thank you
Yeah, not sure why she is doing all those strange adjustments, she is always nicely in if she does 5 normal, equal strides… Is there a pattern on what would help her find her striding? A preferred set up or timing of your throw? Or a preferred way to enter and exit the DW? Try to experiment some and see if there is a way to help her to higher successful rate…
Hi,
we are posting a summary of the whole week, because we had no time during the week to cut the videos.
There are a lot of Jackpots….we hope these are really Jackpots 🙂
On Monday I didn´t tape.
So here is Thusday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
And Friday -- with Helmut:
We are looking forward to lesson 2 🙂
Helmut & Christina
Great!!! He is really running well, you can as well add some height, but start thinking also about up ramp as he won’t be able to jump on comfortably much longer… Do you have enough room to use a table and an upramp to it, like in Stevy’s videos for example? The up ramp can be a single and also a shorter plank if necessary. You don’t need to post every session though, just here and there to check on progress.
Ok !
merci pour les précisions. Aujourd’hui zéro erreur !!!!!!!!!!!!
Je vais continuer comme je fais pendant 3 sessions et si c’est ok je monterai un peu la DW (il faut au moins 80 % de bon ou encore + pour que je monte ?)
thank you for the explanation. Today zero error !!!!!!!!!!!!
I will continue as I do for 3 sessions and if it is ok I will go up a little the DW (must be minimum of 80% good or + for I go?)
Yes, 80% would be minimum.