A New Skill to Train

Today's Regular courses featured a barrel tunnel trap that I have not seen before.  Here's the Elite course map.  To me it seemed like the tunnel was pushed to the right as I indicate and the barrel a little bit to the left.  In any event wrapping the barrel to the #4 hoop was not an easy feat.  On the Novice version of this course, Willie was to the mouth of the tunnel in both Round 1 and Round 2.  Novice Rd 2 did had the dog coming straight toward the barrel from a couple of jumps.  The judge kindly removed the tunnel under the AF, but then replaced the #13 tunnel with a barrel.

Needless to say, I will be setting up my barrel with an attractive off-course obstacle behind it as soon as it gets nice enough to play outdoors again.

Here's one set of exercises I dreamed up.

A Little Bit of Motion Gives Clear Direction

I set up the course below  based on the Balsell's course I posted a few days ago. 

This is just one of several sequences we ran.  Last night, I decided to add the dog walk at the periphery of the course so Belle and I could get in some DW practice.  This morning I added the two hoops and moved jump 5 to the square #13 position to produce this challenging course.  At least it proved to be challenging for Belle and me.

Our first problem was getting from tunnel 4 to tunnel 5.  My path is along the orange line and my plan was to get to the left wing of 6 and send Belle to tunnel 4.  Wrong.  When I stood still and tried sending her to 5, she came over 6.  When she realized that wasn't what I wanted, she defaulted to turning right out of 4 and taking 9.  (Over the last few days, more times than not, that is the direction I asked her to take in the sequences we worked on since it gave us so much trouble in the original course.)

I finally wised up and realized I had to keep moving along the orange line until Belle had passed the middle of jump 6.  Standing still just wasn't going to cut it with this dog and in this particular sequence.  It doesn't matter where I am along that line since it is not my proximity to the tunnel that matters.  What cues Belle to take the tunnel without taking the off-course jump is my movement along the that line until she is committed to the obstacle.

Next bobble was the backside jump, #11.  Belle is used to working with lateral distance and although I didn't have my left arm extended out to the side, it was far enough away from my body that Belle took the dog walk.  The solution here was simple.  Keep my arm even lower, call Belle's name and make eye contact with her.

The last two challenges involved which way to wrap after the straight tunnel.  Once again, since we've been working on wrapping away after a tunnel, Belle's preference was to turn right.  Getting her to turn left proved to be quite a bit harder.  I finally realized that what I had to do was make sure that my motion was going in the direction of the turn I wanted before Belle entered the tunnel.  As soon as she was committed to the tunnel, I could make the left turn indicated on the purple line if I wanted a left wrap.  If I wanted her to wrap right, I had to keep moving along the green line until she was in the tunnel.

The Perfect Setup

Over the last few days, I set up two of the courses from the WAO.  I thought we'd do a little better than we did with them.  I was starting to question why I was even bothering to set these courses up since they are so far above our current skill level.  Then yesterday, I received a newletter email from Daisy Peel about goals.  Basically, by definition a goal (in the sense of a challenge) is something that is beyond your current capability.  Yep, these courses certainly fit that description.  Here's the first one we tackled:

 
Yesterday, I set up a jumpers course from the WAO, and I was totally taken aback at the difficulty Belle had in shifting from obstacle focus to handler focus.  Hmmm.  Time to do some training.  I looked through my binder of Backyard Dog exercises and Power Paws drills, and finally came up with an PP setup (May, 2009) that featured two straight tunnels with plenty of opportunity to bring a dog from obstacle focus to handler focus.  

I set up the course this morning using hoops since our problem stems from handling and training issues and not jumping.  Right off the bat on what was basically an obstacle focus exercise, we hit a snag.  Belle turned the wrong way upon exiting the first tunnel--I wasn't expecting that at all.  Just love it when I pick an exercise that is going to give us the chance to work on multiple skills!  Here's the video of us working it out:

Which Way to Wrap

In March, Bud Houston blogged about the wrap at #15 in this sequence from a course he had run:  

You can read his analysis by clicking here. 

Since I already had the tunnel under the dog walk, I decided to set up the sequence and film from a angle that would clearly demonstrate the consequences of wrapping right and left at #15.

Testing Our Running A-Frame: Exercise 1

Last week I devoted my time and energy to painting the dining room and doing spring clean up in my flower beds.  The dining room is finished, but the work continues in the garden.  However, I finally had a chance to set up a new course to work on.

I chose the March, 2012 set of exercises that Kathy Keats designed for Clean Run since it presents different options before and after the A-frame.  Exercise One calls for several wraps, but the one right before the A-frame presented a special challenge for Belle and me since I want her to do a running A-frame.  I'm not fast enough to stay at next to the jump for the wrap and handle the turn into the tunnel under the A-frame, so I decided we would work on getting the wrap with a minimal amount of handler help.  I thought Belle did a nice job on the A-frame into the tunnel.

Wraps and the Running Dogwalk

Bud Houston posted a sequence yesterday that includes the dogwalk and some opportunities for jump wrapping.  I decided I would set it up and see how well Belle and I could handle the wraps.  It also gave us an opportunity to test Belle's running dogwalk.  I thought she did a good job with the running dogwalk and a great job with the wraps.  However, the camera showed a slightly different picture of the running dogwalk.  From the angle I shot the sequence from, the dogwalk contacts look mighty iffy.

More Wraps

Well, I put up a four-hoop box and tried some more wrap work with Belle and Dusty.  Then I re-tried yesterday's exercise.  Finally, I changed the position of one of the hoops so that I could work on running toward the hoop to be wrapped from both directions.  There were still mistakes made, and I'm rather at a loss to explain them.  For the most part, I thought my handling was pretty good.  So perhaps it's a training issue.  I came up with a slightly more elaborate set-up to continue working on wraps over the next few days.

In addition to wrapping, this set-up will allow us to work on pinwheels and off-set straight lines.

But It Looked So Simple

Here it is January 5th, and it's 51° degrees!  Love it!  Love it!  Love it!  My plan for today was to work one of the easier exercises from Kathy Keats' January Exercise of the Month with Dusty so I could work on my timing with him.  Then I was going to use one of the more complex exercises and work it as many ways as I could think of with Belle.  However.  I quickly discovered that this simple exercise wasn't quite as simple as I thought.

This is exercise #6 from Kathy's series for January, 2012.  It was pretty straightforward until we got to #9 and I wanted Dusty to wrap right around the hoop.  After working on it with him, I decided to try it with Belle just to make sure she could wrap #9 in either direction.  I got a real shock when I discovered that she also ignored my signals to wrap right.  Once she finally got it, I tried wrapping her left and she surprised me by wrapping right.

I watched the video over and over, and I still don't know exactly what is going wrong.  I suspect the dogs are taking their wrap cue from my left arm.  Tomorrow, I'll set up a simple box of hoops and place the video camera on the "landing" side of the hoop being wrapped.

Of Wraps and Layering

While I was recovering from my broken ankle, I accumulated several courses that I wanted to try once I was able to run again.  On May 19th, Bud Houston blogged about this Masters/PIII Jumpers course he designed , and I finally got to set it up and run it yesterday.

Used with Permission

Note:  My jump bars are only four feet long, so there is lot's of empty space on the course as I have it set up in my yard.

Bud posed this question in his post:  If 100 handlers and dogs ran the jumpers course above… which would be the more successful turning direction at jump #9?  After running this course, wrapping left is not an option for me.  First of all, in order to achieve any kind of efficient line over 10 and 11 to the #12 tunnel, the handler would have to beat her dog to the far wing of #9 and do a front cross.  No way I'm going to beat Dusty or Belle to that spot.  Secondly, as long as the handler doesn't run right up to the wing of #9 when wrapping her dog to the right, the dog's line to the tunnel is pretty much a given.

However, if the handler gets too close to #9 (red line) in order to wrap her dog right and has to move left to avoid the wing of the #10 jump, that movement may disrupt the dog's line to the tunnel.

To see the effect wrapping in the "wrong" direction can have, watch the effect that wrapping to right around #17 has on Dusty's closing line in his first run.  It was truly ugly.

The first time through, I had trouble getting both Dusty and Belle  from the #12 tunnel to the #13 jump.  It completely escaped me on the course map and the walk-thru that layering the 4/16 jump will cause the handler to draw her dog to the off-course tunnel.  If I had set up a winged jump here, the effect would have been even more pronounced.

In order to send your dog from the tunnel to the triple, you have to apply pressure along the red arrow shown below.  Trying to do so while layering jump 4/16 is not easy--I did manage once with Belle, but keep in mind my jump is four to five feet narrower than the one called for on this course.  It is much easier to follow the green handler's line below and give a timely out signal and verbal just before your dog exits the #12 tunnel as I did on Dusty and Belle's second runs on the video.  

Arguably, you could do the same thing layering 4/16, but the winged jump will impede your dog's view of you.  And if you are too close to the plane of the jump, you will not be able to push in the direction of the red arrow very effectively.

I don't usually set up winged jumps in the field because they blow down.  (Also, I only have three of them.)  However, after running the course Friday, I decided to place wings at 9/19, 10/18 and 4/16, and run Belle one more time to see if they made any difference in our success or lack thereof.

Here's the video of Belle and Dusty running this course:

Ad Libbing

I had my DH set this practice course up last week.

The layout provides a lot of opportunities to work on a little doggy NASCAR, tight turns and wraps, and turning at a distance.  Yesterday I finally had enough energy to get the tripod out and film my practice with Belle.  I also brought out Dusty for the first time in seven weeks.  Normally, Dusty is like a red tornado on the course.  But he seemed to be really inhibited by my lack of motion.  Unfortunately, I forgot to start the camera rolling again for his workout.

Here's the video of Belle from yesterday:

Wrap & Tight

While reviewing the video footage from the Power Paws exercises, I noticed Belle was turning pretty wide over some of the jumps.  About a month ago, I downloaded Silvia Trkman's Cik & Cap video.  Silvia has a phenomenal grasp of right and left while moving at speed with her dogs, and she has taught them "cik" for "collect and take the obstacle in front of you and turn left" and "cap" for "collect and take the obstacle in front of you and turn left."

I know I am directionally challenged, so that is not an option for solving Belle's wide turns.  However, I've been thinking about using "wrap" to indicate "collect and take the obstacle in front of you and turn toward me.  Then I could use "tight" to indicate "collect and take the obstacle in front of your and turn away from me."

I used the four jump box from the Power Paws exercises to do  a little practice with Dusty and Belle.  Dusty had a hard time with the concept that he is to take the obstacle first and then turn.  If I can teach him this, it will be a great way to save wear and tear on his body.  For Belle, it will enable her to turn more efficiently and hopefully shave some time off her runs.

Notice in the video that when one of the dogs doesn't execute "tight" correctly, I work with one jump and then go back to working with two.  "Wrap" didn't seem to present too big a problem, but "tight" is a new concept for both dogs.


Postscript 04/09/2013:  Dusty has been retired and since Belle never responded very well to "tight," I only use one verbal cue, "wrap," and rely upon physical cues to indicate whether I want her to wrap toward me or away from me.  With my next dog, I will once again try teaching both commands.

Power Paws - Long Way, Short Way: Exercise Three

Here is exercise three from the 03/11 article by Nancy Gyes.

There are a myriad of ways to handle 1-6, and I don't know that it makes much difference which way is chosen, as long as the dog doesn't go off-course.  I felt the crucial point of this exercise was how you decided to handle the weaves.   Front crossing between #6 and the weaves gave me the feeling I was in control of the run.  My second choice would be the blind cross I did at the weave exit.  However, much to my surprise, Belle's fastest run was her first complete run on the video where I waited to do a rear cross after she took #6 and then had to run like crazy to catch up in the weaves. 

I was absolutely taken by surprise when both Belle and Dusty took went from 1 to 3 on their first attempt on this course.  I haven't a clue why they did it.  Belle only did it once, but Dusty did it several times.  He also went off-course from 5 to 3.  I suspect that was because two of the fingers on my left hand were pointing at 3 as I went by it. 

Power Paws - Long Way, Short Way: Exercise Two

Today, I ran Exercise Two with Belle and Dusty.

Since 2 to 3 is a 270, my preference was to stay in the box and try to produce as tight a line as possible by pulling my dog from 2 to 3.  After sending the dog over 4, I did a rear cross.  I finally tried a front cross between 3 and 4 with Dusty, and it worked quite well once I got my timing right.

I normally opt for the simplest handling solution, so I would probably never think to do a front cross here which is unfortunate.  When I went out a second time to work on this exercise, I realized I had to wait for Belle to pass me by in order to do a rear cross.  Rule of Thumb:  If you have to wait in order to do a rear cross, perhaps you should be doing a front cross.

I used four different handling combinations at 6 and 7:

1.  FX between 6 & 7 and a second FX to wrap the dog back into the gap.  This worked with Belle, but with Dusty it was not a very good choice.

2.  Send over 6 and move backward to threadle the dog over 7, and then move back again to threadle the dog to the tunnel.  (I.e., I had Belle and Dusty run across my feet to the tunnel.)

3.  FX between 6 & 7, and then RX 7, wrapping the dog left to the tunnel.  I felt this was a faster option than number 2 above.  The only problem was that I felt like was signaling the RX from a very strange position.

4.  Send over 6 and move backward to threadle the dog over 7 and execute a post turn to wrap him left to the tunnel.  Once I figured out how I had to move, this became my favorite way to handle 6-8.  I also think it was the fastest.




The threadle/post handling described in #4 above are in this video:

Power Paws - Long Way, Short Way: Exercise One

I set up the Power Paws drill created by Nancy Gyes for the March, 2011, issue of Clean Run.  I had a lot of fun with the first exercise.  The primary considerations were which way to wrap your dog around #4 and are you going to try handling 4-7 with the dog on your right or your left or a combination of the two?

I had quite a bit of trouble getting Dusty to take #7 from the correct direction.  Given his speed and his ability to turn off an obstacle in the blink of an eye, I think the best choice was handling him off my right in the weaves and allowing him to go ahead of me over #6 so that I could do a rear cross.

With Belle, almost every combination worked, but the fastest time was produced by wrapping her left around #4 while I stood about half way between #3 and #5.  This allowed me to sprint along the outside for the closing.  However, I did have to make sure that I held my ground long enough for Belle to make the weave entry.

I also found that as Belle got faster, it became harder and harder us to get the last two jumps if I was handling from the outside.  I just couldn't get there fast enough unless I  started running before Belle entered the weaves, and she just isn't quite ready for that.  Therefore, the best way for me to handle this was to do a front cross at the weave exit.  It resulted in a slightly slower run, but at least it allowed me to cue Belle as to the last two jumps.

Turns and Wraps

I set up a small course this morning to demonstrate how to work on getting your dog to distinguish between going forward, turning and wrapping.  I used Libby as my demo dog.  Since Libby is less than obsessed with agility, I have to put a lot of myself into a run in order to keep her on track.  I also keep any training I do with her short, quick and fun.  If she makes a mistake (or more likely I make a mistake), I try to ignore it.

Exercise 3 from Tracy Sklenar's Article

I'm nothing if not stubborn.  When I realized I hadn't walked the exercises as Ms. Sklenar* had created them, I was determined to do at least one of them correctly before the sun set.

Here is the course as designed.  Notice that it requires the dog be sent to the back side of jumps 4, 5, 6 and 7.

I was hung up on how fast the dog can travel from the #2 tunnel exit to the backside of #4 by wrapping left around #4 to get to there.  When I finally decided to front cross on the landing side of #3 and direct Belle through the gap between #4 and #5, the run went much smoother.




*Sept/Oct, 2010 Dog Sport Magazine, "Home Improvement - Which Side When?

Which Way to Wrap?

The weather today is great!  Warm enough to get outside and do a little agility.  I set up a seven obstacle course designed by Tracy Sklenar for the September/ October, 2010 issue of Dog Sport Magazine.  My DH made me a quick mount for my Kodak Playsport video camera so I was able to video each of our sessions without having to fuss with screwing the camera onto the tripod every time I went outside.  I have a lot of video to analyze, but I will be kind and post just a sampling.

I simplified the first two exercises which involved wrapping a jump and decided to find out which way was faster.  I must confess, I have a strong preference for wrapping my dog toward me, but after watching  video of Belle wrapping very tightly away from me, I will no longer be timid about asking her to wrap away from me.

Which produces a faster line to the tunnel?  Wrapping right or left over jump #5?

Which produces a faster line to the tunnel?  Wrapping right or left over #7?

I thought wrapping away from me would produce the fastest line to the tunnel in both exercises, but that was only true in the first exercise.  Wrapping toward me (right) in the second exercise produced the faster line.  The difference wasn't enormous, but making the correct handling decision at every point on a course adds up to a significant savings of time and yardage.

Last spring, I attended a one-day seminar with Ann Braue.  I remember her talking about two of considerations in deciding which way to wrap a jump:  Where is your dog coming from?  Where is he going?

Having Belle wrap (right) away from me in the first exercise produced an efficient path to the tunnel because jump #6 is to the right of #5 (when you're facing away from the camera).  But in the second exercise, the most efficient line from #7 to #8 is to come in through the gap, plus it is a straight line after the wrap to the tunnel.

Tunnel a la Potts

Grabbing Belle's attention as she exits a tunnel is sometimes problematical, so I decided to create a little exercise course based on the tunnel set-up from Lisa Pott's standard course that we ran on Friday.  

My original thought was to replace the weave poles with a jump, but when we ran the course it seemed a little too easy.  I replaced the jump at (51,20) with a teeter hoping it would be a more enticing obstacle for Belle coming out of a tunnel than a wingless jump.

 

My main objective with this set-up is directing Belle to a variety of different obstacles upon exiting the tunnel. There are four logical possibilities in the first exercise.  The dog could also be brought back over #3 as a fifth option.

The course can also be used for jump/tunnel discrimination exercise.  There are also a couple of serpentines embedded in the course.






Here's some video of Belle and me working on the tunnel exit discriminations.  I have nestled this course within the space defined by the dogwalk, A-frame and weaves, which were already set up from a previous course.

Video of Yesterday's Course

It is absolutely beautiful outside today, so I decided to set up the camera and video a little bit of work using the course I shared yesterday.  Since the dogwalk was already there, I added it to my course as you will see in the video.



A word about my red merle, Dusty.  He is a rescue that I adopted almost six years ago.  He has always had a difficult time with head-checking.  Possibly because I lacked the skill and timing to get my commands out fast enough.  In the early days, this was noticeable even when he was jumping; now it shows up mostly when I send him to a tunnel.  He has collided with the occasional sandbag when continuing to run at full speed while looking over his shoulder at me.

It took Dusty and me three calendar years to earn our EAC, and to date, he has only one Elite Chances Q.  Partly this is because I no longer run him in trials very often.  However, I will be running him this Saturday, so wish us luck.  Sunday, he will run with his new best friend, David.  Unlike me, David can actually run fast enough to keep up with Dusty, and Dusty really, really likes it.  In fact, he was quite miffed the first time he heard David running his own dog at a trial.  (He's gotten over that.)

Tunnel Sends, Discriminations and Wraps

I designed the course below so I could work on turning Belle off a straight line to a tunnel and to work on sending Dusty into a tunnel without  head checking.

It can be used for speed laps as shown, with or without the bonus lines; for tunnel end discriminations (white #9 to black #1 or white #1); for tunnel/jump discriminations; and for wrap or tight work.