The "secret" was referring to his hugh growth and move up to Masters level. Dont forget,we dont get to see him in class. That was a very cool run.

Cheers,

Jean

 

I think he looks like a super dog... I love the mainly black markings (sorry Luz!). He is also so relaxed looking in the air. I do wish that Olga would post more exercises. I think it would be very educational to watch her problem solve for herself!

I hope you don't think it is presumptious of me but I wanted to comment on Yankee's dogwalk. I went through a number of your Grand prix runs recently looking at your down contact on the dog walk. I do not get the impression that Yankee is maintaining an *even* stride. That last stride off appears longer. It is also my impression that you are not driving him to the bottom ie you are not continuing forward with the same intensity as the way you run during the beginning of his dogwalk. You may be doing all this for specific training reasons but in my experience with running DW - regardless of what is happening afterwards (ie turns tunnels jumps etc) you have to drive at the point you want.  My terriers will give me that little boing off the end if I ease up just a tad!. .............elizabeth

Hi there,

I will reply to all your nice messages above in this one answer, if you don't mind..

JEAN: Thanks for your kind words and notice of Yankee's growth. I appreciate it. However, let me just set the record straight: you don't have to be in Masters to run STP, or GP, or Team. But, FYI, here is where Yang Yang's at levels-wise at this moment: he just turned 2 years old last Thursday, Sept 13th (and is still accepting tennis balls for belated B-day presents.. p.s.: the tb's don't have to be brand new); Yang Yang has 2 Starters Standard legs, 2 Advanced Snooker legs, 1 Advanced Gamblers leg, Advanced Relay title, and Advanced Jumpers title; he also has 4 Steeplechase Q's and 2 Final round wins with about $25 in prize money, ;-).. He doesn't have any GP legs and no Team Q's, but he does have Tournament Top-10 points, including a 3rd place in Team Jumpers at the SW SuperRegional in 26" division. Having shown longer in AKC, Yang Yang has OA, OAJ and XF titles with two legs in Ex-A JWW and two legs in Ex-A STD.

Now, I have gone through the pain of listing all the above stats not for the bragging value, though I am very proud of the Baby-Bird-Puppy YY, but to set the premise and try to explain how I progress with my own dogs.. No different really then what I teach my students to do..

MAIN OBJECTIVE: Build confidence. The biggest pitfall of bringing out a young and talented dog is to get sidetracked by his seemingly effortless progress in the ring and start USING the willingness and brilliance of the pup, DEMANDING performance.. You will never catch me doing that, ;-).. Yang Yang has a great desire to run at trials and he is by nature a very confident and happy dog. He hasn't had any bad things happen to him in or out of the ring.. So when he comes to the start line, he is ready to PLAY, NOT PERFORM. He is not there to be judged, not by me and not by himself.. well, the Judge can do whatever he wants, ;-)..

With the above now clear, when YY and I run, we do not cut ourselves any slack, we attack the course challenges with all the Ninja weapons we have in our secret Ninja toolbox, ;-).. If we are not ready to tackle some course challenges, we do the best we can. No matter the outcome, Yang Yang comes off the course stronger.

Which brings me to the remark Wendy made praising Yang's AF and Elizabeth's candid write up on his DW.. Curiously, no one mentioned the Teeter, ;-).. oh, the appeal of those running contacts, lol..

WENDY & ELIZABETH: Yankee stands a hair shy of 21" tall and is built the way he can bounce two jumps 18' apart at 26" from a sit and then pretzel on landing tighter then a 16" bc ever could.. I have no claim on these talents. It is how Yankee is. If anyone should be getting the accolades for Yankee's power and agility, it should be his breeder, Ali Roukas-Canova.. drum roll please, ;-).. and go buy her Running Contacts DVD, lol..

The reason I am telling you all this is that Yankee's natural movement does not produce even striding. Nor do I make any demands on HOW he should run. Yang and I religiously hone skills and when we run at a trial, we use what we've got, and we see where we stand, ;-)..

OK, so where do we stand? Let's start from the start, start line that is, pun intended. You'll see where I am going with this in a second, ;-). Yankee has an amazing start line stay. Again, it is natural for him, as he is a very patient dog. And yet.. though I talk to him all the way through the leadout and maintain eye contact as much as possible.. sometimes Yankee moves, or shifts, or scoots forward at Ninja speed.. Why? Confidence, guys, confidence.. He wants to be prepared for the start and puts himself under pressure.. I monitor his "brain temperature" at the start line very closely and I am seeing his confidence level rise.

AF: In practice, Yankee has about 80% success rate on his 5'6" AF and 60% on the 5'10" AF. Success rate is defined by executing the AF with good form, confidence.. and hitting the contact. In competition, he will hit the 5'6" AF contact about 80% of the time, but his form is at 50% at the moment.. so is confidence. On the USDAA Mount Everest 5'10" AF Yankee hits the contact close to 50% of the time, but his good form is at 30% at best. Now the above percentages are not influenced by the judges' calls, as there are as many "missed" calls as there are "bad" calls.. so this is irrelevant. So the success rate in competition consists of form and confidence, regardless of making the contact. And then there is the teamwork aspect.. commonly known as handling, ;-).. I'd say, we are at 50% being "on the same page" in that respect, which DOES NOT go hand in hand with the execution of the AF or hitting the contact. But regardless of all the above, Yankee's AF is breathtaking.. and that is the yardstick I use in developing this and any other performance skills.

DW: While the AF skill level and the much more forgiving width of the obstacle already allows us to employ a lot more entry and exit maneuvers, while still maintaining the "drive straight!" default, we are yet to graduate to anything but straight or mild approaches and exits off the DW. This is for SAFETY reasons. We did give a go to the "Leadout>>Push>>Land>>Switch leads>>Square up>>and Get on the DW approach from hell" in the GP run Elizabeth mentions, ;-).. So, in my book Yang did great, i.e.: he did not fall off. However the approach and the close proximity of the fence to the right of the DW created a compressed stride on the up plank of the DW, which Yankee tried to extend once he got half way up it, fighting to stay on and striving for acceleration. The exit required a threadle immediately followed by an RX to jump the jump after the DW and turn right into the close end of the tunnel. Limited by the DW being next to the fence and thus not being able to handle with the dog on my left, which would have been my choice, and having to support the approach to the DW, my only handling choice left was to use deceleration to cue the jump to the left and the subsequent immediate lead change. Yankee shortening his stride on descent and jumping off had nothing to do with me, he just couldn't stay on, end of story. However, I am actually tickled pink with this GP opening, as Yang Yang and I made it through without a run out, refusal, dropped bar or off course end of the tunnel. Yang just doesn't have the skill level needed to execute the DW any better then he did under these circumstances at this moment of time... Now, I won't lie to you that the amount of effort and concentration it took me and Yankee to do it and to maneuver through the next sequence of the right side of the tunnel - weave poles discrimination.. that we did run out of gumption after the poles and botched the only easy part of the course (triple-wingless-left-teeter), ;-(.. But we recovered to have a stellar closing sequence and clock 2 seconds faster then any dog at the trial, clean or not.

Now, why, you must be wondering, I am giving you blow by blow of this silly run, if we are talking about the DW performance and handling? Because when we choose to run a course, we put our skills to the test, we put our skills into running the course, not the DW.

And to answer Elizabeth's question, if I would accelerate and keep accelerating all the way down the DW, a couple things would have happened: a.) Yankee would have fallen off the DW less then halfway up; b.) both Yankee and me would have ran past the #5 jump.. well, I would have to run through it, while Yankee would have already been in and out of the tunnel, ;-)..

And now to make the full circle: Yankee is not required to maintain any kind of particular stride on the AF and the DW, or anywhere else for that matter. He is encouraged to use his body in any way he feels fit to RUN the contact obstacles, and RUN THEM AS FAST AS HE CAN. Yes, he does understand the contact positions and will make an effort to stride into the contact zones. But he is not required.. YET.. Just running and staying on the contact obstacles while staying on course is what his job is at the moment. And what a fine job the kid is doing, may I add, ;-)..

Olga.

Thank you for explaining so clearly what you are attempting to do with Yang-yang!  Bravo!  I hope that I can have the good sense to develop and stick to a plan which starts first and formost with the dog wanting to be there, having fun and running as fast as possible!  Comments you have made to me about Wisp's training are slowly starting to make sense. 

 I think that for those of us who don't have the opportunity to see you run your dogs in person (and perhaps for those that do!) that the description of what you are trying to accomplish with a given run might be really informative and very helpful particularly with the 'big picture'.  I often get very hung up on detail (hey it's my job) and need to be reminded of what is really important.!  thank you

elizabeth