Caro & Seven, Border Collie, 1.5 yrs old from Spain

Welcome! 🙂

“When I want him to stay with me while I move I just call his name, I’m not sure if I should have a different cue for this?”
It is up for you to decide. I don’t like too many different cues, so I also mostly just use the dogs name for this one, but it is perfectly ok to also give it a special name. “Here here”, “close” or something like that.
Staying close needs some more work because when he arrives with some speed, he enters the turn being quite wide and only comes closer when you keep turning and his speed decreases. It is a hard exercise for powerful dogs, but I like the dog to slow down early enough so they can stick with me without drifting away first. So keep doing lots and lots of repetitions with short starting distance and big reward from the hand. At one point I stop rewarding when I see the dog is repeating the same pattern over and over again (I cant say this for sure based on the few clips on your video), but if you do several repetitions and the dog is always starting wide and than coming close, I will no longer allow it to happen and reward it. I would shorten the distance and maybe ask for a dog to come from lie down to nose touch directly a couple of times so he learns to decelerate to stop and than add the rotation again.

As for lie down after a ball was thrown – sometimes a dog just needs a few reps and lots of partying when correct to figure it out (and sometimes not :D), but you can also do many middle steps that make this journey easier. One is described in the lesson – holding the collar, throwing the ball, waiting for it to stop so it is less tempting, giving the cue while still holding the dog,…
But for me it also helped a lot if I did tricks and basic exercises while having balls on the ground around me. I was rewarding behaviours randomly, sometimes with food from the hand and sometimes with send to any of the toys lying around. If the dog is having hard time focusing on tricks, more rewards from the hand, if the dog is getting bored, more sends to the ball… 🙂 Hope that helps.

That is quite typical for young dogs to have problems switching from one drive to another. It is just important that you don’t get discouraged and that you help the dog focus and engage. So if you send him to the toy and he is “meh” about it, just run there yourself, kick the ball to make it move faster or grab it and make a chase with it… just make it super excited and don’t switch back to food immediately. Give him a nice long and energetic play first. Than repeat the exercise.
The exercise you were doing is particularly difficult if the dog has problems switching so you can start with something really simple instead – just have him sit or lie down, reward with a treat and than send/rush him to any random toy that is lying around and give him a big party.
You are close, just take your time to clear this up for him and he will be switching easily in no time. 🙂

“We’ve been working on switching and I think we got it, or sort of….”
Yes, much better! But dont worry, it is a process.
Problems with sit – yes, show me. I am not sure exactly what you mean. If I feel my dog is a maniac or has a potential to become one, I will do a lot of “listening games” where I give random cues and I find it important for a dog to really listen not just do what feels right. But for example for start line stays in agility, I use whichever command the dog is more comfortable with. Because in that context only the waiting part is important. I always set the dog far enough from the first jump that they have time to develop speed no matter which position they start in.

So as far as I am concerned, I see nothing really wrong in his training. You can add even more dynamic – running in the opposite direction of the toy than asking for a turn close to you than back to the static toy. Or you can include wraps. On single jumps increase the distance between the ball and the jump or/and add additional jumps/tunnels. 🙂

Such a good boy! Listening really well. 🙂 I only have some little tips here and there, overall nice job!
In the beginning he was a bit too handler focused, I don’t think he was expecting the sequences, but he figured it out pretty soon. When you first start with a new sequence make sure you move with him, so your movement gives him the confidence to keep going and not think it is an exercise where he has to pay attention on you. Especially if you are doing something not so familiar to him – like that rear cross to the tunnel in the first repetition. You could run in the direction of the entry a bit longer after you sent him.
I wouldn’t be calling his name when coming out of the tunnel, because the next jumps are directly in front of him. Save calling for when he has to pay attention because there are several options or there is a change in direction comming. Given that he was listening so well, you can mix and do some repetitions where you reward him for a straight line and some where you reward after turn. 🙂
When you set a static toy up for him, you can play with the one he picks up if you notices he is only briefly picking it up and than focusing on the next one already.

In is a good skill to have especially on moderen courses these days. 🙂 I would make a more graduate transition from the “exercise” to the “sequence”. Especially once you see the dog is making a mistake in the sequence because he is just too overwhelmed. The way you did it will also work eventually, but it is more simmilar to just calling the dog than acutally teaching what “in” means. So I would stop and do some exercises from different angles with just the tunnel first, to “remind” the dog and than gradually add more distance and speed. I would “dry” practise all angles that later appear in the sequence. I really like the dog to understand “in” and not have the need to look at me when he hears that word, so I rather take longer time explaining it to them. 🙂

I am sorry. I had some personal troubles. Will extend the duration at the end to make up for the slow feedback this week.

Nice session in the beginning! To get good understanding that is the way and it is normal it takes time. 🙂 The situation that was difficult for him – you keep starting him from the side which is relatively difficult to begin with. I usually start in the middle of the two jumps, so they make a full wrap on the first one rather than slicing it. That by itself usually helps the dog to come in more willingly. If not, I would just call him to nose touch the hand several times before asking to do both.
“Techincal” exercises can easily be boring for a dog so you can give him playing breaks after couple of repetitions or reward with several consequtive food throws to add some dynamic. 🙂