Time for a new lesson! And a "catch-up break" 🙂 I'll be home one more week to review your videos of where you are at and answer questions on how to proceed if meeting difficulties with new assignments and then you'll have two weeks to work on it on your own, catching up if you got stuck behind a little - or giving your dog some plank break if you're as far as you wanted to be with it. If you're behind, make sure to complete lesson 1 before you start with lesson 2 and that you complete lesson 2 before starting with lesson 3 - you can't jump steps, there is a reason I'm giving you this assignments in the order that I do!
I'll be back to answering on 24th June and will publish new assignments on 4th July.
1. switch to a static toy, position it at the bar of a jump with a bar on the ground. The jump should be straight forward after the plank, about 7m away. The goal is the dog starts to look for a jump, knowing the toy is there. Occasionally, still throw a toy in advance, but mostly, have it there. When the dog already knows where it is, put a jump bar very low and a toy behind it (close after it, but far enough that the dog can land normally). Keep it there long enough that the dog is expecting it there. When you see the dog is pulling well towards the jump, knowing the toy is there, get another toy and as soon as you click the contact, throw a second toy over the jump. Soon, you won't need a static toy at all anymore.
The goal is to switch from a static toy that is there as a target for the dog to focus him forward to a jump as a target to focus the dog forward and a toy as a reward we throw AFTER we see the contact is good. You need to be pretty quick as you don't want the dog to wait for the toy - so quick that I sometimes throw it before I realize the contact was actually not THAT good - but it gets easier 🙂 I guess this step will finally make everybody worried about rewarding jumps happy as now, you can withhold the toy for unsuccessful tries. HOWEVER, make sure the dog successful rate is high for this step as otherwise, you can loose the speed and get the dog checking back with you if you're throwing a toy or not. The same can be dangerous if you're late throwing a toy.
This is usually an easy step for BCs who will run full speed in anticipation of the toy, but can be a very hard one for some other dogs. For Le, that was the hardest step. She was running beautifully if the ball was still rolling when she saw it, but if I threw it that early that it was already static when she saw it (or when I positioned it there), then she didn't extend well enough. What finally worked was going few steps back with height, exciting her a lot with a toy, throwing it at the jump and sending her quickly to the dog-walk. That made her striding good enough to continue long enough to have her look for the jump and then I quickly switched to a toy, thrown after the contact is done, over the jump. That temporary caused some checking back with me, so I needed to go back to a stationary toy again, but then she finally got the idea to keep running full speed toward the jump/tunnel and trust the toy will appear then 🙂 and that again gave me the beautiful striding I had before trying to get rid of a toy, thrown in advance.
If the transition to a stationary toy is too hard, another way to try to avoid that phase is to pretend you are throwing a toy in advance, but then only throw it after. OR, using a tunnel as a way to focus the dog forward and throw it after the tunnel - works great with tunnel crazy dogs, didn't work with Le. Try and report back if you have problems.
2. keep adding height. If you have an option, it's also time to try the real thing. You can either use a lowered dog-walk or a normal dog-walk with additional plank at the end as you can see in some videos. Start with down ramp only and then slowly put the dog further&further back until you run the whole dog-walk.
When trying this or any other, new variable, don't vary other variables - make it as easy for the dog to succeed as possible. You can also lower a criteria somewhat. Normally, your criteria about hits by now should already be to be deeply in the contact - but temporary, you can click for good tries on a limit too, IF hind feet are well separated and the dog is not leaping.
3. new trick: have a dog back up on something very low and preferably soft first (folded blanket, low pillow) - then slowly add height, so that they need to pick up their hind legs higher&higher. At the same time, you can teach a "pee trick": click for lifting the leg, searching for an object, before they touch it. Make sure to try to get leg lifts on both sides - they usually prefer to go up with the same leg, so try to sometimes position them somewhat diagonally in front of an object so that their preferred leg is too far from it to start with that one. Also try climbing stairs backwards.
Have fun!
I have an electronic mat but I don’t use it now. When we will do the whole of a DW I will take it. With this mat we don’t see if the dog is deap in the zone
The problem is actually that it doesn’t tell you HOW the dog touched the contact. As I said: you can use it to avoid clicking too late, but you still can’t avoid watching the dog and seeing how exactly he is hitting.
Thank you Silvia, my problem isn`t the late click it is the click for nothing!
Hello Silvia
Dans mon jardin est ce que je continue à monter un peu la planche ? actuellement elle est à 80 cm. J’ai réussi à baisser notre DW au club (ça va être plus facile pour travailler), est ce que je mets la même hauteur ?
Est ce que dans mon jardin comme elle a 100% de réussite, je rajoute un tunnel ?
Donc si j’ai bien compris, au club sur DW, je l’éloigne très très doucement et je rapproche dès qu’elle fait 2 erreurs à la suite ? je ne travaille rien d’autre pour l’instant
In my garden I still ride a little the plank? currently it is 80 cm. I was able to lower our DW at the Club (it will be easier to work), do I put the same height?
In my garden as we have 100% success, do I add a tunnel?
So if I understand at the Club on the DW, I softly away her and if she make two mistakes I approach her? I do not work nothing else for now
Yes, you can keep adding height to your plank and you can also add a jump or tunnel after. But work as much as possible also on a real DW. You can try it very low and on your current height and then do whatever gives you better successful rate. But yes, put her further back very slowly and then closer again if she starts to jump. Don’t change any other variables and try to use the set up and a form of rewarding (thrown toy vs.static toy) that is the best for her, to get as good successful rate on a real DW as possible.
Silvia this is our last trainning, We are still beggining from a tunel, I moved the jump in front of the DW a little to the rigth, I´m throwing the ball sometimes latte sometimes earlier.
Do you think we can try with the A-frame? and Should I change the tunel for a jump?
Thank you
Cool, looks great! And yes, sure, you can start her from different obstacles and maybe even from a little sequence now. You can also keep moving the jump after DW. You can also try A-frame, of course.
Hi, Silvia.
Here is where Da Vinci and I are at with RC. I only did slow motion for the last session, but included the progression. Are we moving forward appropriately? He was a little nervous about that elevated single plank at first, but finds it quite fun now! What should we be focusing at this point?
Great job! I would keep adding height and moving the jump around. If you have an access to real DW that can be lowered to this height, you could also try that. You could also slowly start fading the food dispenser.
Thanks, Silvia. Should we change this set up to a single down plank or keep it at 24″ wide with carpet while we are adding height?
I’ll work on access to a real dogwalk.
Yes, you can go to single down plank now as you are getting close to a real DW.
Hi, Silvia. We went out to change the RC setup for a single down plank and got stumped. I don’t know which ones to attach and if we are supposed to keep the carpet or not. I have two teeter planks and one DW plank. If the carpet goes away, there will be yellow contact zones in various places. Will that confuse them? I have enough planks to even make a mini-DW setup, but there would be red and yellow all over the place. Are the dogs looking for the contact zone or the end of the board?
Kristin
No problem if there are some additional contacts 🙂 They should be looking for the end of the board (they had to with the carpet over anyway). If you can attach the carpet on a single board safely somehow, you can first keep the carpet, to not change the set-up too much at once, but if they’re o.k. with it, then the next thing is to remove the carpet too.
Hi, Silvia. We are very behind so will definitely be finishing up in your next class. Is this what you expected with us between Da Vinci being a puppy and Callie a re-train? I’ve been trying to take is slow with both of them so I know we aren’t practicing as much as most. Do we just keep moving forward and transfer into RC2 when it is time??
About the set up. I want to ask before you go on break. We changed to single planks…teeter plank on horizontal with a dogwalk down plank. 16″ height no carpet. Callie is fine with it. Da Vinci is pretty concerned about the down ramp. We have done two sessions now. The first one we had lots of leaping and very slow. The second we had less leaping, but he definitely is not running. I had to even walk to the end of the plank with him some and praised him for going through the bottom. Is this normal? Does he just need time to get used to the new width and surface? How do I proceed without rewarding slowness? We don’t have a good way of attaching the carpet to the narrow plank.
Thanks,
Kristin
Sure, keep working on it at your own rate. Normally, 3 months is enough, but if you really work almost every day and yes, with the puppy, I was guessing we won’t get till the end. Let’s try to change less things at the same time… Keep a double board, but without the carpet. So he is o.k. with horizontal single plank, but not down ramp? When he is fine with new surface, try single plank again, but maybe first having him go up, you could also see if he can turn on horizontal plank etc. so that he can learn how to handle this width. It is really narrow for a puppy of his size, but if he is o.k. with horizontal single plank, I’m pretty sure he will be fine with a down ramp soon too.
Yes, he is fine with the single horizontal plank. When we first added it, he did take a few days to be ok with that.
He seemed more comfortable today with the single down ramp…I didn’t ask for running and just had him go up and down, sometimes turning around on the horizontal. We just walked back and forth and he started going ahead to the end of the plank (I would toss a cookie out ahead so he would come all the way off of it. He isn’t afraid of it I don’t think. Even if he slips off, he jumps right back on.
Before I go out and change the whole set up again, is there any harm in giving him a couple more days to get used to the boards this way? Then try restraining and sending to the MM or tunnel/ MM again like normal training?
Sure, that sounds good. I hope he is o.k. with it by now!
Hi Silvia.
Da Vinci is getting much more comfortable on the single plank. I’ve had some days of actually asking for running on the plank. A couple days were just to the MM and then the other days I put the straight tunnel out again. He seems to be understanding that it is still the same game. Not running as fast or with as much hind feet separation, but he is trying. He is improving. This progression shows the last 4 days of training. I left in some running up the boards so you can also see how his confidence changes. I edited for slow motion only on the last session so you could see more closely what we built up to.
What do you think? Should we continue to work this way and keep trying to get the nice running back? Or, do you think we need to go back to 24″ wide down ramp?
Kristin
Huh, well, ideally, you would somewhere get a plank that would be something in between… Wider as this one, more narrow as a double one… If not possible, you can keep trying like that, but I would definitely try to get something somewhat wider (even if not of a perfect length)…
Hi Silvia,
I’ve had 3 training sessions with Oliver and Sage on a full dogwalk since I last talked to you. I’m posting Oliver’s 3rd session and Sage’s 2nd and 3rd. I apoligize for posting so much video, please feel free to skim. I posted 2 of Sage’s sessions because I wanted you to see her striding and how it’s developing.
As you’ll see in the videos I was sending Oliver to a food target and sometimes throwing a 2nd toy for the good ones. Is this ok? How do you suggest I progress? At this point he doesn’t really drive to the jump without something there.
For Sage I decided to try something you had suggested to a few others in this class. I set her up between 2 tunnels (with a jump thrown in) and ignored the bad ones stopped and partied for the good ones. I was really happy with this temporary set up. It definitely got Sage thinking without being demotivating or wasting time. I still haven’t seen 1 1/2 strides on the down plank but I have seen it on the up (don’t know if that means anything). I’ve been rewarding nice running in the yellow without worring about how she got there (though I will definitely jackpot 1 1/2 strides if I see it). Is that the right thing to do, just keep my criteria and let her figure out how she can best meet it?
Now for a few more random questions. 🙂
1) Oliver looked kind of shuffley to me. I’m not sure if he’s adjusting his striding to be in or not running fast enough or what??? Oh and he seemed to be really prefering front feet. Should I be concerned?
2) Should I be adding any other things from the lessons in for either dog? A-frame?
3) Sage has a trial in 2 months was that completely stupid of me? Do you think she has a chance at being ready? I’m okay if she misses a few contacts I just don’t want to delay the process by putting us back further.
Thanks! It’s exciting to watch both dogs get closer to finished running contacts. 😀 So many people have told me it can’t be done I’m thrilled to prove them wrong! Thank you for answering my never ending questions. I hope I’m not driving you crazy.
With Oliver, I have a feeling like he is definitely trying to be in, but thinks it must be front feet, so he is sometimes trying too hard and slowing down more as necessary to hit with front feet. It’s hard to always be in with front feet, so the dogs with this style often either slow down some at the down ramp OR miss more as dogs who know more options, so it’s not perfect… I would definitely play with a plank some more and see if you can get hind feet on one height or approach and jackpot that.
With Sage, most of her tries would actually be really nice if only she had better hind feet separation… Well, the trend is good, so you can keep working like this on a real DW, but again, I would also do some work on a plank too, focusing on hind feet separation. She should be ready in 2 months, but a new situation can make her miss, so don’t be too disappointed if that happens. It won’t hurt the training process though, so you don’t need to worry about that, just focus on keeping it fun and making her familiar with new DWs and situations.
For now, I would focus on those two things (hind feet with Oliver and hind feet separation with Sage) and wouldn’t change any other variables and would also leave the A-frame alone for some more time.
Ok, will do. Thanks for simplifying everything. 🙂 I’ll focus on those two things and check back in a little while. Oh and I really appreciate the conformation on the trial. I feel a lot better about it. 😀
Oh, oh, oh, oh, Silvia, Look at this!!!!! Oh she is amazing!
Oh my goodness, this is sooooo much fun!
Almost there! 🙂 She is really impressively fast!
Hi Silvia:
Just checking in with the progress we’ve made and a few questions. We worked through the process of switching from a thrown toy to focusing forward after the DW to static toy/jump/tunnel. The tunnel is what I’m using now. During that process, I lowered my criteria a little bit looking for running through with speed without worrying so much about low/high hits.
In the video, I show the last two hits of a recent session where he was consistently driving forward toward tunnel (not looking back at all). At this point, I felt I could start to raise my criteria again and felt it would be the right time to go to a full low dogwalk. So the next part of the video is Tai first time on whole dogwalk. I just cut out a few obvious leaps in the middle -- he got a little distracted partway through the session by the neighbor dog and lost his brain momentarily.
What do you think? I have a feeling he is more comfortable hitting with his front feet and when hind feet make more sense he’s tending to leap a little or overextend his front feet, e.g. 5, 9, 10. Do you see it that way? Just needs more experience and jackpot those where he chooses to use his rear feet to run through, like #2?
I need to get better at discriminating between the ok hits to the really great ones! But that will also come with time.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Anne & Tai
Hm, see my discussion with Shona, I’m seeing the very same problem with Tai now as with Bender… Too much of a reach forward with hind feet on the last stride… Pay attention to not reward -- or at least not jackpot that!!! I can see “overreach” in 1, 3, 6, 8. I also wouldn’t reward 10, he is spreading his front feet unnaturally a lot and almost misses the whole contact because of that. 2 would be the best from all tries yes, that’s his normal reach forward -- compare that reach to 8 for example. 5 is a leap yes and 9 is somewhat leapy too. Try to find a way to get more tries as 2 and to get rid of that unnatural reach forward -- see it frame by frame to see what I mean and definitely look at Shona’s video too.
Thx for your feedback. I definitely see what you mean. Any ideas on what to try? I just tried another short session sending from tunnel to low dogwalk and then to tunnel. Got mostly leaps so really much worse than what I posted :-(. So, then I took a break and tried again, sending to a static toy expecting that would keep his head lower. That wasn’t much better. Need to do something different. I think he’s getting frustrated too although I’m staying postive, no longer using a NRM -- just neutral and giving a “screw-up cookie” in between tries.
So, help me thing this through…Looking back at video, the last really good hits I got consistently over several sessions- driving really nicely off the board, head low, no overreach, etc -- were with 2 tables to a plank and throwing the toy ahead (6-28 submission). Then I tried adding a short plank to the 2 tables and his success rate got really low with lots of leaping. That seemed to say…he simply didn’t understand enough to adjust his stride or maybe that the setup I tried was just way to hard (I don’t know!). So, I went back to the 2tables-plank setup and spent a bunch of sessions switching to a static toy/tunnel so I could get to the point where I could reward only the “good hits”, hopefully helping his understanding. In reviewing videos, that’s when his striding subtly changed… with head coming up slightly on the last stride on the plank, shortening of stride AFTER the DW -- just not driving forward as much as he had when chasing the toy -- not as much value for driving hard toward the static toy/tunnel, I guess.
Along the way, I tried tossing out the 1st toy and then having a second toy to throw when I sensed it would be a good hit but I was getting a lot of head flicks. So, I gave up on that pretty quickly. But maybe that is what I need to go back to…the 2tables-plank setup and work through the head flicks so I can keep him driving forward. What do you think? Any specific advice on working through the head flick issue? Maybe away from the plank first.
So now you are getting real leaps? Because most of the tries in the last videos were not even leapy, the major problem was the “overreach”. Definitely go back to whatever set up was the last good one for him and yes, throw a toy in advance again, we can get rid of it later, it’s really no hurry, it’s more important to get the normal running back right now. If he didn’t “overreach” in his last video, he would actually have plenty of perfect hits, so low DW didn’t seem like a bad idea at all to me, I’m just not sure when and why did this overreaching begin… And it’s very strange that he goes from overreaching in your last video to actually leaping from one session to another… Do you have the leapy session on a video too?
Away from the plank, I would work on his drive to the tunnel: try to play a game look at the toy right here in front of your nose… Want to get it? Go get that tunnel first! -- And then have him see the toy as soon as he is exiting the tunnel. Most BCs are crazy enough for the tunnel that changing a toy for the tunnel is easy.
As painful as it is…here is the video that shows the leaps. I didn’t even bother with slow motion…it’s so obvious! In the first session, I had changed sides of the DW and he lost focus forward to tunnel. That explains most of the leaps. Then I switched sides again and you’ll see tons of leaps. Finally, I tried a static toy and it didn’t get much better. I inadvertently rewarded a couple of leaps but overall I was “good” in not rewarding those.. Of course, his rate of reinforcement was very low.
So…later in the day, I did 2 really short sessions (it is hot here) -- static toy after a jump and a 2nd toy thrown occasionally. No video, but his drive forward was definitely better and I think the hits were better -- they were not leapy, for sure. Will try that again tomorrow and video.
He normally has tons of drive for a tunnel -- what you describe above is something we do often but I’ll make sure we’re doing sends with a 20 ft distance -- maybe that will help.
I’d like to stick with the low DW -- I doubt that has much to do with what is going on.
Anne & Tai
Hm, yes, definitely go back to a throw toy… And maybe backchain the DW; he seems better when you start him from the middle.
Silvia, Sorry I don´t undestand what is it “overreach”, can you explain me please??
congrats you and your dogs are amazing 🙂
See the discussion we first had with Shona, we were discussing how far hind feet normally reach forward.
Hi Silvia:
Ok, we have now moved to a new set-up and venue! We are on a real DW at my friend’s agility yard. It is set at 29″ high and I can increase it by whatever increments I want 🙂 This is our fourth session at this height. Same as before -- sending to wrap a jump wing before the DW and sending to a jump 20 feet past the DW.
Questions/comments:
1. Since I am trying to get rid of Bender’s unnatural striding I have been jackpotting most of the 2 rear hits although they are abit high in the contact zone. I like #9, #10 and #11 the best.
2. I don’t know what to make of #7. Since it was low I did jackpot. Not sure now if that was correct?
3. Would you like a different camera angle so you can see the whole DW?
4. I haven’t started Lesson 4 yet, preferring to get more height and experience on real DW first.
Just saw your note to Ann above and will review Tai’s videos to see if I can offer any help….
Shona and Bender
Great! Very interesting how fast the unnatural striding went away! It’s only at 7 we can see some of it, so I probably wouldn’t jackpot it, but would reward it. 9, 10 and 11 are really nice and I think he will get even deeper with more experience. One thing that you can try that might take him even deeper is starting him from the tunnel instead of a wing. It’s of course o.k. to wait with lesson 4 some, but things definitely look to go in the right direction 🙂
Yes I am very pleased to see Bender’s 2 rear feet hits again! I will try a tunnel and see if he will go deeper into the contact. And then I will add some height.
I have been trying to figure out how the unnatural striding started. I have reviewed my training videos and it was during one set-up where I stayed at one height for 10 sessions because our percentage of hits was only around 70%. At that time his misses were because of one stride on the down ramp. I think Bender was trying to figure out his striding and how to get another 1/2 stride in. He was getting jackpotted for the “very late” hits by one front foot or rear foot. So maybe this made him think by extending his last stride this was what I wanted? I just hope that by jackpotting the nice 2 rear foot hits he will learn to hit the down ramp first with the rear feet and then I will have nice consistent hits.
I’m not sure this helps Ann and Tai because Ann has used different set-ups and still getting the reach forward…
Shona and Bender
Shona -- that is encouraging that the overreach seemed to disappear as Bender got more experience. In Tai’s case….he’s very new to a full low dw, so maybe it’s just part of the process of figuring it out. I hope :-).
Anne -- I think alot of new variables also makes it difficult for them. You start changing up the toy reward (using static instead of chasing) and at the same time you add the speed of a full DW. Both Bender and Tai have long natural strides and they do have to think about their striding at speed now….I backchained for awhile too to take some of the speed off first and then slowly added it back in. I agree with Silvia that dogs are much smarter than we think and how we reward (i.e jackpot or not) does make a big difference!!
Hope you can see improvements with Tai as he figures it all out!
Shona
Yes, that sounds very possible. It did look like “trained, trying really hard” behaviour. Now that we got those hind feet first on a down plank, things will be much easier for him. He is such a good boy for trying so hard!
I think this overreach is easy to reinforce as it’s so no-leapy that it can look really good -- until you see it in a slow motion…
That’s what scares me! I can see in on video but not in real-time…at least not yet.
Anne
It gets easier when you know exactly what to look for. When I first saw this problem, it was with one of the people who trains here and all I saw was “something strange” but needed a video then to see exactly what was strange. It definitely doesn’t look leapy, but it looks strange and unnatural even in real speed 🙂
Hi Silvia:
This morning’s session was much better. I threw a toy past a low jump set 20 ft out from DW. He saw me throw it but it was static when I sent him. I started with backchaining then at the end sent him with speed to the DW (9 and 10). I saw that “overreach” in 9; but not in 10. Agree?
So, my thought is to use the same setup for the next couple of sessions, gradually adding more reps with speed (i.e. less backchaining). Do you agree?
Also, I’ll work on sending to a tunnel from distance and rewarding afterwards.
Knowing his problem, I would be rewarding somewhat differently… I’m not talking so much about overreach with one front foot, as in 9, but overreach with hind feet over front feet and I definitely see it in 4 and 7, so I wouldn’t be jackpotting that but would, knowing his problem, reward some tries where he is too high, but at least moves naturally. The good thing is you’re not getting any leaps this time, so just focus on a form of running. You can spot the overreach as the dog is looking as he is going to fall on his nose and first hind leg hits the ground more as 2/3 of a contact’s length after last front foot.
I think the problem is that when coming with speed, he can’t fit in 2 strides and is too short with 1, so he is trying to somehow fit in the second one by shortening it and then doing this overreach. I think that as soon as he realizes he can hit a down ramp with hind feet first, the problem will be solved -- as in Shona’s case. See her last video, that’s the striding we want from Tai too so if you ever see hind feet hitting the down ramp first, definitely jackpot, even if he is hitting too high for the contact. I think as soon as we can get 1,5 strides on a down ramp, he will be fine.
This is fascinating! It’s great to see how dogs are figuring out the 1 1/2 strides. I went through Shona’s videos and it looks like Bender has been experimenting with this for quite awhile. The earliest I found was June 1st. Sage doesn’t even consider it an option. I wonder if it has anything to do with her being a retrain? She seems to think any sort of apex is meant for her to stride over. I’m trying to think of any setups to encourge it but I only have two planks so I can’t really do a mini dogwalk… Should I be trying something different?
I don’t think it’s so much about retraining, as about the set up. Mini A-frame set-up and one table to a plank definitely promote front feet first. Low DW is the most probably set up to give you this striding. Maybe you could use your two planks for 2/3 of an extra low DW (as Ann is using), so that she can just jump on a horizontal plank? Starting with it so low definitely helps with getting hind feet in first as you can hardly see the apex at that height.
I’ve actually been trying this setup so I keep at it and maybe try lowering it even more. Thanks 🙂
Hi Silvia:
Here is a video from today’s session -- he started from just before the DW (not a lot of speed) to a static toy placed after a jump ~20 ft out. Based on your comments above, would you reward 2, 5, 8? I was kind of neutral on those today…I thought they might be the start of what we are looking for because his RF hit first on the down ramp but wasn’t sure in the moment and they looked a little leapy. Number 6 was really good, yes? This was jackpotted. Numbers 1, 3, 4, 7, 9 -- all looked good with FF hits -- yes? For good or bad, those are the easiest to see at this point and the most likely to be jackpotted.
He’s trying!
Thx
Anne & Tai
Yes, 6 was the best. I also like 2 and 5 -- 8 some less as his hind feet are too close together. The FF tries, I don’t like so much… I mean, the good thing about them is that they definitely show he understands he needs to touch that area, so I would definitely reward the effort, but would not jackpot it -- maybe 3, but definitely not the others. My problem with those tries is that he shortens the second side so much to fit it in that he then compensates with overreaching so much that he almost misses the contact. On try 7 for example he has maybe one finger in and I wouldn’t blame any judge for calling this… But yes, he is definitely trying!
One idea… Maybe we could try to make it somewhat higher? That would make it easier for him to see the beginning and the end of a down ramp and will maybe help him be able to make the necessary adjustments sooner instead of in that last stride?
Silvia:
Thanks for your comments -- I think raising the height is a great idea. Will do. I deliberately kept the speed off today by starting him from just before the DW. Do you agree that is the right approach until he gets the idea that hitting the down plank first with RF is ok?
Anne & Tai
You can experiment with a starting point some to see which starting point gives you the most tries with RF first… Raising some can help, but don’t raise it so much that apex is so pronounced that calls for flying over it… -- it’s somewhat tricky 🙂