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 🙂
Here are our homework #1 and #2. I’m very sorry about the bad quality, hope you can make something out of this?? I promise to practise video taping & editing too! 🙂
This was Vissas first time running on a carpet, last 5 tries out of 15 that we did. I guess she quickly learned that she needs to run between those cones (even though I threw a ball pass them at least twice). Do you think it’s a good idea to have those cones or should I leave them away?
Another thing, do I use the cue for running fast at this point and change it for DW-cue when we are actually running DW?
Yes, I use running fast cue only until getting to DW and then start using DW cue + running fast cue as they run the DW (if it’s a straight exit). The cones, I would move back slowly and then use them at the beginning, I don’t like having something at the end for too long as they can start to cue from it… Make sure you throw soon and far enough, she is sometimes somewhat airy -- because of the ball I think.
You are definately right about that ball, I should throw sooner! Even though I tried to concentrate on that, I was still late in today’s session. (Yippee, finally a short moment without raining and I was able to tape it…) Now I had Vissa free for several throws and then only restrained her a couple of times with the last tries. That definately works best at the moment. I removed the cones this time and I don’t think she undestands that the carpet is “the thing” here, she just runs after a ball.
When you jackpot the dog, do you run after her to reward her and not to wait for her to run back to you with the ball? I was just thinking if she thinks that fetching the ball is what she’s getting rewarded for? Even though I click for the good hit.
She was passing the carpet several times but second to last try, number 8 that is, seemed good to me and was the only one I jackpotted.
Sure, it takes quite some sessions for them to get what you are going for. But first, you need to get normal running anyway and yes, she is still leapy on all but that one try. Experiment with different ways to start her and timings of throwing a ball to try to get more of runs like that and once there, you can switch to a plank. For now, I would keep working on running as such. For jackpots, I click and at the same time mark with excited voice and talk to them in a happy voice all the time until they get back to then jackpot them. They know really well they’re being jackpotted for what I clicked, but I teach that concept through tricks first.
I don’t see where my comment was posted, so I am trying again. Sorry if this is a repeat……….
Hi Silvia!!
OK, so I may have a problem with Little Spur. Today at the trial he did five dog walks. The first four were perfect, with one being a two strided down that was high, but in and I call that perfect. The last one he missed trying for the two strides. That would make his fourth time trying for two strides at trials. Out of those four he has only missed the one today, but I see a pattern coming here.
As he is gaining confidence and starting to really love trials he is wanting more and more to do that two strided down, which is very risky as you know. Since this was his fifth time on this DW today at the trial he was more confidence and had more speed, but not enough to get deeper with two strides on the down.
I am not sure what to do, except that my thoughts are that if he would only speed up more on his horizontal plank he would have no trouble with a two strides down, but since he makes adjustments often there, it affects his speed on the down and two strides are not enough.
Do you have any thoughts?
Thanks, Amy and Little Spur
I was able to re-create the excitement of a trial this morning. Some of his favorite friends came over. He LOVES to perform! 😀 Anyway, it was very interesting I think. He missed the first three (not sure why some are slow motion, some are both -- I guess I was rushing to make the movie, sorry -- but they are in sequence) He tries for the two stride and leaps the first three, then he has to work really hard to be in on the remaining five reps. I wonder if I am just not doing enough maintenance? I haven’t really done these training sessions much at all since the spring. It had seemed that things were just getting better and better without any training. But, maybe he is just needing a refresher?
Do you have any thoughts after seeing this?
Also, I didn’t mention before that he also leaped his a-frame yesterday at the trial. Did several that were lovely, but one he just leaped!! He has NEVER done that before, even in training!
Sorry, I somehow missed your first post, only saw it now… But yes, it’s hard with dogs who are “in between” two different stridings. It would be great if he could hit it in 2, but I guess that’s hard to achieve, given his size, different approaches to DWs and different environments and DWs that might affect his confidence. I’m right there with Le at the moment, she is always in on my DW and on her third try on a new DW, but often not on a first try on new DW: too low for another stride, too high for the judge… For Spur, 3 is definitely safer, BUT as he actually needs to shorten some, it’s true that this kind of performance require more maintaince as “run full out” does. So… I think you either need to maintain 3 OR try to get 2 (by maybe lowering the DW again and doing lots of ball throwing), BUT that’s riskier because even if it works at home, it might get you in trouble in trials, so maybe it’s really not best timing to play with it, given that you have a big trial coming up, I think?
For A-frame, it might be the same problem, but if it only happened once, I wouldn’t worry about it just yet.
OK, yes, I think you are right. Safer to stick with the three. He obviously knows what to do as he nearly falls on his face once in this video trying to get a hit in there, poor little guy.
Funny, I was just discussing with someone how it seems that a RDW is SO much easier to maintain and that it really doesn’t need much maintenance at all. Then this occurs. Hahahaha!! But, it does make sense that for his size and structure/striding he needs refreshers on occasion. It is obviously hard for him at times, he sure works hard on this video after the three leaps. However, I will say that this is the only time I have ever been at all worried about it. And we have been trailing a fair amount. I trust his RDW more than just about anything else on course!!! 😀 He never knocks bars, so that’s not an issue, but missing a jump or taking an off course is definitely an issue. His DW is just not a concern for me. And that feels good!!
Yes, I do have the USDAA Nationals coming up in October, so I guess should do some maintenance, I guess. 😀
Yeap, sounds like it’s not a good time to experiment and instead time to do some rewarding! As I said, if that’s necessary or not purely depends on how hard or not the behaviour is. For example, I never ever reward A-frame with Bu or Bi as it’s easy and natural for them to do it, but I needed to do some rewarding at first with La as I trained her to do it with front feet and deeper in as with BCs, so it’s harder for her and she was sometimes tempted to skip it, so needed some rewarding to maintain it -- but even with her, I never reward it anymore (but then, I guess you really don’t need it after 9 years 🙂 ). The same for DW. The only maintenance I do with Bu for example is some straight exits to tunnels or a thrown toy when we did too many curves and turns in courses. With La, I needed to reward more and longer because of her front feet style, but also don’t reward it at all anymore.
Hi,
Sorry for the poor quality and not so great slo’mo.
Am getting a new vid cam so will be better in future.
Questions:
Dog not good when on my Left, runs off side of plank and does more leaping.
My throws are bad with my left hand so could this be the cause?
Am I too far up the plank just yet?
Dog on right is much better, stays on plank, gets hind feet in colour.
Other questions:
What is a manners minder?
What is the black tape across the contact zone I see on some of the video’s?
I always throw with my right hand, no matter which side the dog is at. But throw sooner and maybe start her further, I think she is not in full extension yet over the plank? -- Her hind feet separation could be better. It doesn’t matter where you stand, pick up whichever spot allows you to see and click it best. Manners minder is a remote food dispenser: it opens the access to food when you press on a remote control. Not sure what black tape you’re taking about, but I think it’s a tape that marks the difference between AKC and USDAA length of a contact.
Hi,
Bought new Video recorder but now my old computer won’t register it, so have new computer on order, will be able to post our video progress in a week (fingers crossed)
So here is where we are at:
We are managing to get some training in before and after work.
Is 4-5 sessions each day with 8 reps each OK? or should I be striving for more reps or sessions?
Our % rate of hind feet in the zone is currently at 67%, with a slight drop today to 64%. This is due to trying different things, so brings rate down.
Throwing with right arm now no matter what side I am on, much better thankyou for that tip!
Some runs I have put ball on the ground ahead of contact so she is not always seeing a moving ball. She is the same with either moving ball or still ball.
Tried to use her Tugg Toys or Frizbie, but she is not good at all with them, runs off the plank, or misses with big leaps, or runs to the side of plank completely missing it. So will continue with Ball. Is this OK ?
Using both a tunnel and sitting start, both with the same results.
How far back should the tunnel exit be from the plank?
How far back should a sit be from the plank?
Jackpotting:
She is running back to me with the ball, I have been whooping it up verbally as she makes her way back, even turning and running sometimes. Is this OK?
Also when she gets to me, I will give her food from my hand, OK?
OR on the odd occasion she will have a tugg game with me, however I can see all she really wants is for me to throw that ball again. So can I do a small throw along the ground just to give her that jackpot of the ball she really loves?
I am also starting to whoop her up as she runs past me on the plank with our “go go go”. OK?
Sounds good! That should be enough repetitions yes. Ball is of course o.k. and yes, you can throw her a ball again for a jackpot if she prefers it over tugging or food. You can of course give food from your hand yes. I like to start them at good distance from a plank, like 4 or 5m, but you can try to vary it some and see what starting point gives you the best hits. I prefer tunnel over stay. Important question: in the remaining %, is she leaping or just not hitting the contact?
Thankyou for all answers.
The remaining % is the following:
Getting in the yellow with front feet.
Getting in the yellow with maybe a hind toe only nearer the plank part not the getting off part (sometimes these look like leaps, however she is getting just in the yellow, but that’s not what I want)
Moving off the side of the plank and maybe just getting 1 foot in yellow.
Running past plank(that was when I experimented with stationary Toy or Tugg)
Going too slow and not getting the correct striding so not getting in yellow at all.
I am trying to only jackpot the hind legs in the middle of the yellow, although it is hard and at times to see this and I have hit the clicker at the incorrect time. So we do not jackpot with ball or toy.
Untill I get my new computer, I cannot play video to see hind feet seperation………hoping this is happening when I am clicking.
Sounds as she is not really leaping, so I guess you can as well raise it some and work on feet placement on new height. Two front feet in the middle are o.k. too.
Moving got in the way again but I’ve finally got some video of Bree running on the carpet between two straight tunnels. The carpet is 24′ long and 6′ from the each tunnel. I tried curved tunnels first but Bree wasn’t running full speed and was very bouncy.
This appears to have stopped her desire to leap over the end of the carpet. I didn’t try to mark anything, just let her run and threw the ball past the end of the tunnel. Should I move the carpet so she’s hitting in the ‘contact’ area so I can click, or will the click be confusing with the tunnel afterwards? I assume I should very slowly move the second tunnel farther from the end of the carpet?
A little more hopeful……… Carol
Wow, now that’s MUCH better! And yes, you can help by setting the first tunnel so that she is hitting the end of the carpet. You definitely want to mark that moment, you can first try it with your voice and if that doesn’t distract her from taking a tunnel, try clicking, but at the same time cue the tunnel clearly and reward after -- I think it should be easy if she likes tunnels. If that goes well, move the second tunnel further and if it still goes well, you can switch to a plank.
Hi Silvia. Bree seems not to care if I click the rug in this sequence, continuing to drive to the tunnel and on to her ball without a glance at me. She also seemed unconcerned when I moved the second tunnel so it was 10′ beyond the end of the carpet. Will wait another day or two until I get that second tunnel farther from the carpet before introducing a very thin plank. I assume I should continue to use the two tunnel set up with the plank since things are going so much better.
I moved the carpet to get more hind feet hits, as you’ve stressed their importance. Bree got some nice solid hits, which I appear able to see, mark and jackpot. I still need to train my eye better for the hits that are more marginal and sometimes I’m unsure whether or not to click what I see. I think I was probably wrong about 50% of the time on those. At this early stage, is it better to err on the side of clicking too much or too little? 🙂 Thanks, Carol
Well, the important thing is you don’t click leaps. But now that she is running, if you sometimes click high hit it’s no problem, just don’t jackpot. A good trick to see the placement better is to either paint the end or mark a “reward line” with a tape, it makes it easier to decide. And yes, you keep the tunnels, just switch to the plank.
Hi Silvia,
Bree was doing very well on the carpet so three days ago we moved to the 12′ DW planks side by side with a tunnel on each. The first session was full of leaps and single hits in the middle of the planks so I’ve only posted video of sessions 2-4.
I think she was running fastest on our second session with both the carpet and planks, but the leaping was a problem. It’s possible I could eliminate the leaping by moving the second tunnel closer. I didn’t think of it at the time.
Sessions 3 and 4 I had the tunnels pretty close, about 8′ from each end of the planks. Her stride seemed shorter than when I had the carpet in front of the planks, but perhaps that’s normal when she’s only running on 12′? She lengthened her stride just slightly some of the time, resulting in a single foot late in the contact, but thankfully there didn’t appear to be any big leaps.
I had a little trouble with her shutting down today and not wanting to bring the toy back if I wasn’t verbally exuberant. She was a bit less consistent in session 4 so there were fewer jackpots. She clearly wants the more desirable reward, but I don’t think she’s figured out what she’s supposed to do to get that jackpot. She’s pretty sensitive if she perceives she’s doing anything wrong or less than her best. At this point should I still be trying to adjust the position of the planks to maximize jackpots, or do I let her work it out? Maybe keep the sessions very short so she can’t have too many mistakes in any one session?
Should I continue to work with just the two planks while gradually moving the tunnels farther from the each end of the planks or did you like the carpet/planks combination better?
Looks good enough for me to continue like that. If she is extra sensitive about being right, definitely try to help her with the position of a plank to keep successful rate high and then add challenges slowly enough that successful rate stays high enough to keep her happy 🙂 Carpet-plank combination looked like a good idea to me, but you actually got more real leaping there as on just the planks -- but maybe just because she has learned she can run the planks as well by then? Maybe you can try it again and then go with whatever gives you higher successful rate. At this point, we still want to help her as much as possible. I only start to challenge them some (lesson 2) after I already have some height as it’s easier for them to see the end and make the necessary adjustments then.
Is it time to give up yet? 🙂
In spite of mighty efforts we don’t seem to be making any progress, so here’s more of the same -- her last stride turning into a leap. It doesn’t seem to matter where I move the planks, it all looks the same. Her leaping has gotten steadily worse each session with the 12′ planks, so I got another plank to have 24′. Still leaps at the end. I think the leaps with 24′ might be slightly worse than with 12′. The only time she appears not to leap is when her normal running stride takes her naturally over the contact.
Though I’ve been clicking any hits in the contact even if there’s a leap simply to keep her willing to play the game, I’m actually getting very little worth rewarding because of all the leaps. I also get faked out and click misses because her strides right before the contact makes it look for sure like she’s going to have a good hit.
What would be the best thing to do now? Should I put the end of the planks all the way into the tunnel? Stop trying to click anything and just throw the ball until she actually starts running? Continue with 24′ or go back to 12′? Go back to the carpet? Does this dog actually think she’s supposed to miss the contact?
I’m feeling pretty clueless right about now so some suggestions would really be welcome.
Smiles, Carol
I think the leaping got worse because you’re clicking&jackpotting it… You jackpotted 3 for example that is an obvious leap -- and didn’t click 4 that is much better and 7 was GREAT -- while 6 was a BIG leap. I would almost click the opposite of what you’re clicking… I wouldn’t click any leaping, even if she by accident lands on a contact with that front foot, but would click everything that is normal running even if she is not hitting. Once she starts running normally, you can play with moving the plank so that you get more hits, but it doesn’t work at this point as you can’t predict her striding as she is leaping, not running equally… So yes, not clicking at all is definitely better as clicking the leaps… So definitely some flat work still needed… The good news is that a hard start doesn’t mean the whole process will be hard, so I wouldn’t give up yet, just forget about the hits and focus on running: we need running first.
I thought we needed a fresh start on the planks so I switched to a different set up today and things seemed to go better. Instead of 2 straight tunnels on either end of the planks, I curved the tunnels at each end and now have her running a big oval loop with tunnels at each end of the loop, the planks on one side of the loop and simply running on grass on the other side of the loop. I thought running on the grass after mistakes might help, so when she leaps on the planks we just keep running around the loop and try again.
The added benefit to this set up is I don’t have to throw her ball until she exits the tunnel after the planks, so I can see her stride over the entire length of the planks. Makes it much easier for me to see when she’s leaping because I notice the change in stride.
Please let me know if you’re more in agreement with my decisions on what/how to reward. I did as you suggested and only paid attention to running vs leaping.
Thanks, Carol
Yeap, that’s definitely better! Good idea for the set up too, you could actually also spread out the carpet again so that she is running over the plank in one direction and over the carpet in another: just to give her an idea this is the same thing. As long as you manage to see and jackpot correctly, I think this should really work now.
I have had a couple of weeks without my computer with videoediting program, so no uploads of running contacts. But we have been training all time. We are working with low dogwalk and different setups and switching between througn toy, static toy and trown toy after passing the contact zone. While working on only throwing after passing the tunnel after the dogwalk, she was beginning to slow down a bit and focus on me. It has made her steps shorter. Now we are working on getting good hits and getting more speed again. In this session she has lot of leaps. We have worked on the hight for almost 14 days.
From what I see, she does the contact nicely if you start her with less speed and she does 3 hits on a down ramp. With more speed, she tries for two and then mostly leaps off. By the end of the video she is still doing 2 hits but actually gets deep enough with 2 -- was that what she was doing before the problems started? Two hits are not much for such a small dog… Maybe when FCI shortens a DW next year it will be o.k., but still, it would be good if she knew to do 3 hits if necessary too as I think 2 will sometimes put you in trouble -- when an approach won’t be perfect, on a new DW and similar. So I would be working on two things: full extension with nice approach and straight exit AND also some ugly approaches that will require 3 hits -- you can get those by starting in the middle first and then moving her further back slowly. How long are your DW planks?
My dogwalk ramps are 3,60 m. So they are as short that the can be.
Ok. so i will be working as in this session?
sometimes starting her from different steps on the dogwalk, and sometimes let her run from tunnel over dogwalk to a tunnel as in this video, on the tries were you can’t se the startpoint.
Ah, o.k. If those are 3.6, then it means she will need to mostly do three hits, so I would try to practice three hits mostly, starting her on different starting points and later on from a jump positioned so that she needs to push out some and take the DW from 180 degrees. It would also be good if you could sometimes practise on longer DW. It would actually be easier to get 3 hits then and I think she will need those.
Hi Silvia,
I’ve made the plank this we!
If we want to see the positive points:
-- I think she can run full speed on this tiny yard (hopefully you’ll confirm that point!)
-- She doesn’t get bored as I thought since she can handle 10 times in a session as the other dogs !
-- She is really consistent in what she does!
But
-- It seems she thinks she has to jump the pink part 🙂
Should I go back to the carpet for some sessions?
Céline
Hm, no, she doesn’t run full speed, she is bouncing up in air instead -- that’s not very fast way to move forward 🙂 Could be the toy is too close to the end of the board, because of a limited space as she clearly wasn’t doing that before. Would using a diagonal give you more room? You can try if she runs better with the carpet… If yes, then maybe we can make the plank work too, but if you get the same on a carpet, then that means there is not enough room… Great job with tricks, loved the cavaletti!
Here’s my last Week One update. What I’ve seen is Gus’ success rate go up quite well (and a side effect of this training seems to be a very nice increase in his speed while running jumpers courses!).
Wow, what an improvement! He looks great! If that’s what you’re getting all the time now, it’s time to raise it some!
Silvia -- I was thinking of switching over to my regular dog walk, flat on the ground? I’m thinking of doing some good sessions with the perfectly flat dog walk, then starting to raise my dog walk. I think it would be easier to support my dog walk as I raise it because it has a nice aluminum frame. The planks are very flexible and I think that they could be difficult to keep properly supported along the length. What do you think?
Also, once the dog starts to run through with a high success rate, how many sessions would you do at that high success rate before raising the board?
Sure, if your DW has thin enough planks, then you can use that -- or, you can even raise it slightly to soften the edge. You should do at least 3 to 5 successful (meaning over 80% successful rate) sessions on each height: 3 if you are raising just a little bit, 5 if you can’t raise in small steps (small would be 4 to 5 inches).
In case that comment didn’t make sense -- I’m thinking of switching from the plywood planks, flat on the ground, over to my actual dog walk, flat on the ground. I think the dog walk will be easier to raise than the plywood planks.
Hi Silvia -- here are my videos for Assignment 1.
I work on Reggie’s dogwalk almost every day (weather permitting) and use a clicker or verbal marker for good hits followed with a food reward. I honestly don’t think he understands that he is supposed to hit the yellow. I think it’s more luck than anything when he has a nice contact.
When we train, I always have an obstacle before and after the dogwalk. His best contacts are when I send him to a tunnel first and he runs the DW at top speed. His contacts are usually not quite as good when he starts with a jump before the DW. He is most likely to leap when we run a longer sequence that includes the DW (probably 50% of the time).
What do you suggest I try next with Reggie?
Assignment 1 -- Part 1 (Running on the flat)
Assignment 1 -- Part 2 (Running on dogwalk)
Assginment 1 -- Part 3 (Cavaletti)
Assignment 1 -- Part 3 (Hind feet turns)
Yeah, it doesn’t look like he does any adjustments when necessary to get in… Maybe you didn’t challenge him enough in the process by different approaches etc.? It’s an important part in order to get the understanding, so I think it’s time you do it now. Don’t start him in his preferred way all the time, try moving that tunnel first, then going to tunnel -- jump -- DW and then making the sequence before DW even longer if that is causing problems. To keep his successful rate high enough while working on all that, it would probably be necessary to lower the DW. The tricks are going well, but try to be static now as he is pivoting, to really make him think about his hind feet.
So cute your cavaletti !
Hi Silvia, this video is from yesterday training… We did before you posted your last comment, This was the first time on this DW, so I used a tunel before the DW, with a strigth enter and exit, we still working with stright enters and exits and we stoped the turns training. With a tunel she is most of the times with 5 strides, but this time she is doing one on the down ramp and when she is doing 2 she is too high.
I´m a little sad, Acqua is now 18 months and I feel that is long time to be prepare compite 🙁
Very strange striding indeed: she is almost in with one hit -- and then too high with 2 hits… Can you help her succeed by starting her at just the down plank? Or in the middle? Or maybe again lower your DW some to first get higher successful rate at home. I think she just needs more experience, but it’s never good when people get nervous, wanting to compete. In that case, I usually tell people to teach 2on2off and start competing with 2on2off and meantime continue on working on running contacts (with different cue), taking their time. Another option is to start competing with unfinished running contacts, it’s no problem if she misses some at the beginning as RC always gets better with more experience, so it’s no big deal if she misses some. In general, she just needs more time and you need to find a way to help her succeed more to have more things to jackpot.
Thank you Silvia, I will video tape a training session at home where I have an upper plank, a table, and a down ramp she is doing very good on that setup or do you think is better to do in a low DW and not to do more session at my home? I don’t have DW at home.
I will not think about compiting for a wile, that makes me stress…
I think at this point, she needs DW experience. If she is very good on your set up, then I think you can stop working on that and focus on getting to real DWs.
Hi there Silvia, there seems to be a problem with lesson 2, it wont open, Thanks kindly.
I have the same problem Alicia. I thought I did something wrong but now I see I am not the only one 😉
Thanks, I think I found the problem and fixed it, it should work now.