ST Foundations Class - Lesson 5

We didn't do this lesson.  This was way too advanced for us, but here are the videos of what we did work on.











So as you can see WE DID A LOT OF OTHER STUFF!!! LOL! We have been very busy. It's fun playing with a dog that wants to play (most of the time).



Lesson 5
O.k., things are getting somewhat more complicated now! Now that you mastered the serpentine, we’ll look into other options with that set up too, but first, let’s train some of
1. out/around/back
Push the dog on the other side of the jump by stepping with your left foot if the dog is on your left side towards the left wing/stanchion (and the opposite), saying your verbal and rewarding after he takes the jump. Every next try, help somewhat less on the take off side and move more on the landing side -- see the video. This is again the question of commitment: the dog should understand to take the jump you showed even if you are already moving away already (helps in serpentines too!)


2. serpentine vs. threadle vs. pushes

Now let’s try two pushes in a row on serpentine setting. If that goes well, you can try a threadle too, using your collection body language, together with cik/cap before the dog takes the jump and then “come” as soon as his front feet hit the ground -- rewarding from your hand for coming to you. Once that goes well, try two in a row: when the dog comes to hand, don’t reward but cue cik/cap for the next jump and then reward the ”come”.

Once you can do two pushes or threadles in a row, try three. And if you manage to do three, you can even try four! It’s harder for every next jump, so make sure you progress slowly so that the dog is mostly successful. Start with a wrap to tunnel to have good speed. Mix in some serpentines too to keep them attentive to your body language and make sure, you train them both ways, so that the dog exits the tunnel on your side of the jump sometimes and sometimes on the other. The pushes and the threadles, sometimes do with the dog on the left, sometimes on the right.

Don’t worry to master it in 2 weeks, it takes more than that, but do try to do some of this.

3. sequence: a little more complicated this time, so again, run it in parts and definitely walk it several times first, rehearsing your body language AND when to say what! -- It gets complicated now as it includes everything we learned so far (wraps, extension, sends, serpentines, out/back/push).


Let’s start with a wrap to the tunnel, then blind or front cross when the dog is in a tunnel, show 3 (you can call it “right” if the dogs knows directionals), cue collection (front cross) and use “cap” for 4, then 5 is “cik”, send to tunnel and cue extension for 7 (meaning: RUN!), push for 8 (say “out/back/push”), RUN for 9, wrap 10, push/out/back for 12 and handle 13 as a straight line (it’s a serpentine from 12 to 13). Have fun!

And here is my video of the sequence without 10 and 11, I completely forgot that part! Looks like I should be printing the courses out too! But I guess it can help some anyway, I also included serpentine, threadle and pushes, I hope I got that part right!