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Ronin update: The ultrasound did indeed provide definitive answers, so that’s good. They did look at both sides and also double-checked patellas. It was fascinating to see the difference in the good muscle on the right compared to the one on the left. So the official diagnosis is that he has a grade 3 out of 4 strain of the left medial head of the gastrocnemius, meaning there was a partial tear and some inflammation and scarring in the muscle.
I had to re-look up that muscle in my canine anatomy book to see exactly where it was – not very commonly mentioned.
I’m sad that we won’t be able to join the young dogs seminar with you in June!
>>do you have a big hollee roller toy?
I DO! He doesn’t seem to be a huge fan of it so far, but maybe I will try stuffing something inside to see if that improves it’s desirability.We did practice some more games!
Plankrobatics:
Need to get my longer plank out, but this worked for now!
Parallel Path:
After watching the video I see on this one that I ended up being a bit farther away laterally than I thought I was and thus it was harder than I intended, but he did okay with it anyway it seems.
Countermotion:
Again, after watching the video I feel like my positioning was off and I should have left a clearer path for him to get to the prop. Where I was standing on both sides he kind of had to curl around me to get to it.
Wing Wrap Right:
Reacher is a righty and so I started with his easier side first on this one. I thought he did pretty well, but let me know what tweaks I need! And sorry about the unhappy screaming Ronin in the background because he’s once again left out. 🙁
Wing Wrap Left:
Also went well considering this is his harder side. Tweaks?
Send me your thoughts!
Oh Tracy, I really appreciate your notes about what to have the doc check on Ronin. I’ve certainly had dog health issues before, but other that a slight sprained carpus this is my first experience with an orthopedic problem. New territory for me for sure! I will have them double-check the stifle/patellas while he’s sedated for the ultrasound tomorrow when he will be too groggy to protect it. 🙂 THANK YOU for sharing your experience.
Back to Reacher, but kind of related to Ronin, you might want to turn the sound down for part of Reacher’s training video below because there is a VERY ANGRY Ronin barking in the background because he was left out of the game and Rich let him out into the screen porch. Sorry about that!
The entire session was almost 3 minutes, but I cut a bunch of the playing/tugging to get it down to around 2 min for you. I present Toy Races:
He was even trying so hard to get it one time that he totally flipped over trying to stop. OMG speaking of not wanting orthopedic issues Reacher…Let me know what you think,
KristinThank you Tracy! Yes, Reacher is quite a character. The first time I had him on that mini teeter maybe back in late March or early April he was just a maniac on the thing. I was glad he actually controlled himself a bit more this time when he tried it. I will definitely do the cookie tosses forward to keep him from stopping next time – great feedback!
Roger that on the wraps too. Will stay closer for now doing the left turns.
The blinds were fun. I did rewatch the video to see what you mean about his running and sounds. LOL!! I tell ya, this one is different from all my other pups. He’s going to keep me more on my toes I think. Can’t wait to see what his future brings. Anyway, I think I can get in two blinds, and will start the first earlier. We should be able to move into the big agility space outside now too – just a bit of fence to fix and we’ll be in business!
Yes, Ronin is injured and it’s something that’s bugged me since about last August but then I wasn’t sure I was seeing it, then it got worse, then better, I tested for Lymes and other tick-borne after that based on what he was doing (I’d have bet $500 on a tick problem, but nope), and then pelvis radiographs and stifle and front assembly and vet was stumped and then it was better again. But it kind of kept coming back and I wasn’t sure which specialist to see since I’ve never needed to before, but he was just doing something too odd / wrong for such a young dog intermittently that I finally couldn’t ignore it anymore and gained confidence on what to do based on the Canine Sports Medicine class I’m taking. Anyway, preliminary diagnosis received last week from an orthopedic surgeon is “muscle injury to his proximal gastrocnemius muscle, where it originates from behind the knee”. Will confirm with ultrasound this week and see about treatment and how long we might be out. So… 🙁 But I’m very relieved to have an answer for something that’s been nagging at me (and him) for so many months. Poor guy!
Anyway, so, that leaves more time for Reacher training. We worked on backing up today. I had started to teach this before class, but didn’t get super far. My reward markers were messed up on this one, and I realized that he can’t yet do it with a verbal only, but it’s a start!
~Kristin
Thanks for the great feedback. Still working on finding what toys he might like, but for these sessions used food since it was breakfast time.😀
Wing Wrap:
We had done a bit of this back in February before you even mentioned the class, so we are a little ahead on it, just had to dust it off a bit.
Goat Tricks 2:
Also he has been on this thing before, but Day 1 pretty much looked like this. LOL!
Blind Cross:
Despite doing blind crosses all the time it’s amazing how hard they are in this context with the puppy. LOL! The good news is that I think he likes the flying squirrel toy!
Ronin is on the injured list – I hope we’ll still be able to see you in our working spot when you come here in June – but that also means more training time for Reacher, so there will be more videos!
Let me know what you think.
Kristin>>Also, does he like balls? Just trying to figure out what he might like
I just introduced the Lotus ball, separately from these exercises, to see what he thought and I think he might like that too once he figures out how to get the velcro open. He seemed a bit frustrated by it on the first try, but was motivated by the food inside at the same time. I took out my old one with basically unusable velcro to make it easier and that went better.
I do think he’d like the flirt pole idea also. I didn’t get that or a string yet for my weight gloves, but will! This time I did attach the two gloves together with their velcro to make it a bigger toy.
>>Having him wear a collar will really help as you start to be upright and adding motion.
Definitely. I meant to have the collar but then when I got it all set up realized I didn’t have one and just went with it. This next time I made sure to use the collar and it was indeed much better.Here’s the next round of Focus Forward with a bit more motion and distance.
On the Send, the first rep I realized I didn’t really indicate anything (brain fade) and he looked at me like, “Um, okay what are we doing?” so I managed to remember what I was doing after that. LOL! Let me know what you think of my mechanics and positioning.
Here are two Goat Tricks videos on different things:
He is pretty goat-y around things at home so we will see what happens as equipment comes into view.
Let me know your thoughts on all this. Thanks!
Kristin
Great feedback, as always!
>>Before going to much further with the foot target, you might consider something bigger so he can get 2 feet on it when as he grows
OMG no! He can’t get any bigger dear Lord no! 😂 He is already turning into a monster size for a Mini-Schnauzer. I have jump height worries. Ha! But regardless, I did switch the prop to something a little bigger, to your point.
>>And you can also try to see if he likes toys!
He doesn’t really like them very much in this context, but is a supreme cuddler, which I why I thought that would make a great alternative, but you are right he didn’t seem to like that and he gave me valuable information on that point so I switched things up today.I did get inspiration for a “toy” he might like and I think I might have hit on something… Turns out he really likes my sweaty weight-lifting glove!! Ew, but whatever works! So I used that for a reward with the games a bit to see what would happen. Definitely better than cuddling.🤣
Prop Game:
I didn’t stand up for this one because I know it was hard to see my face in the last videos (I will get my normal camera for that back soon – it’s currently stuck on top of a Mtn. bike helmet), but I don’t think I’ll have an issue with him finding value in it when I move farther away.Target Game:
Drive Forward game:
Again I used the “very used” weight lifting glove and he seemed motivated by that. I realize this session was a little long so will set a timer next time, but I wanted to show the complete session.And I will de-clutter the environment next time even though he doesn’t care about Ronin’s toys laying around.
It is SO much fun to get started!
Kristin
Here are our pre-game videos!
Game #1
Game #2 – Round 1
Game #2 – A little later…
I seem to forget my words a few times but will refresh my brain on mechanics as we go I am sure.😁
Thanks for the great feedback! Your eyes miss nothing!
And I was thinking the same as you about just starting the Doxy for Ronin anyway, but hubs doesn’t agree exactly and he did improve with chiro work. So I have an appt. soon for lyme re-test and also going to do full X-rays of joints too just to be sure.In any case, I have MANY videos to submit this time due to taking the time to train but then getting too busy later in the day to cut the video and upload. So, I’m sorry for the massive amount in this post. If you need more than a day to work through feel free to take it! My plan is to at least get at least one feedback on the remaining exercises before class closes and if I get any second rounds in before the end it will be a bonus. 🙂
Big Lines 2
For the first rep, I definitely lost my train of thought so just rewarded a few things and moved on. Ha! Rep 2 – soooo, losing my train of thought appears to be a theme! LOL! Oh well Ronin doesn’t care and still gets a reward.
Rep 3 – I liked the BC on the other side of jump 3 better than trying to serpentine it on the first two reps. Seemed more clear to him (and me!). He seems like a dog that I will probably almost always be faster than so I might as well move my ass to make it clearest for him. Also on this rep, not sure if I was confusing him with all my head-turning on the way back to tunnel or what, but he certainly paused and seemed to consider taking the jump despite my strong Tunnel verbals.
Rep 4 – decided I just wanted to try to get that serpentine anyway for the fun of it. He got it, so Yay!, then I did a horrible rear cross in there that he put up with anyway, HA!, so I rewarded that.Big Lines 3
I like this session mainly because he got the rear crosses! We have really struggled with rear crosses, so I was pleased he got these.Forced Front Cross & Forced Threadle – Step 1
Missed doing any of the forced threadles, but he thought the FFC were fine! Determined that the toy vs. lotus ball still is not very exciting outdoors. LOL!FFC & FT – Step 2 – Sequences
Note that I did several rewards for the stay that I just didn’t include in the video to save time. I STILL didn’t do too many forced threadles, but he seemed to get it. Will practice these more!Go Tunnel, No Tunnel
Tried another toy option for reward, but still no excitement. Back to the treatball! It lost its latching mechanism to allow me to get a good string on it but will fix that for a bit more excitement. Otherwise, this session was just okay. I think he thought it was weird going behind the tunnel to just the wing and I felt awkward too. But I get this exercise’s importance for sure.No teeter training lately since my teeter is in need of resurfacing. Current state of rebuild is replacing the rotted wooden plank with aluminum and just glued the skins back on today. Currently curing for 3 days, but then will be back to almost new!
Kristin
So for piling two posts on top of each other, but I have some videos finally! But do still let me know how long he feedback will go.🙂
Tandem Turn – I feel so weird doing these but I can see where they would be handy on course some day. Will keep working on it, but let me know what you think.
Tunnel Threadle – I am not sure my arm cues are very effective in this practice. I feel like he’s so short how’s he gonna see anything up there!😉
Lead Out Lines
I was pretty happy with his stays on this one, and I did reward more of them than shown here (just to save video time). He did have two reps where he went around the first two jumps (but I only showed one of those on the video. And I’m not sure why he bypassed the jump at the end of one of the reps. Maybe too much looking forward and disconnection?
Looking forward to getting your notes!
KristinHey lady! I am sorry I have been MIA for three weeks. It’s been kind of insane. Work completely off the rails crazy – entire department cut in re-org except me and one other (!!!!). Old guy Emmett had cancer removed which was stressful but went well despite coming home with a massive incision to take care of, but then he almost died 1 week later from some serious liver disease with the cause unknown. Made peace (sort of) with the possibility of actually losing him this time while getting ready to go out of town for an event which I decided I could not skip. Em came with just in case. Then was suspicious of Ronin contracting Lyme’s based on symptoms, but test was negative. Went to his chiropractor and then saw improvement, but I’m still suspicious. Going to retest for Lyme’s anyway + full xrays because the test may have been done too soon after finding the tick and I’m still seeing a few potential symptoms. He can do agility okay but I’m limiting it until I know for sure if I’m crazy in seeing what I see, or not, and can get a diagnosis.
So, yee haw, it’s been a fun three weeks! <insert bigger than average eyeroll here>
I actually have a few videos from the 14th yet to upload, but really right now I would like to know when is the end of getting your feedback on the class lessons so I can plan appropriately. Thanks in advance for the end date, and all he fabulous feedback to date!
Krisin
Thanks, Tracy! I tried a few more tunnel entries and exits today and maybe I just got lucky yesterday because we had a bit of a struggle with the rear cross in this session. Here are the failures:
How would you make this easier to train it more comprehensively? I am thinking shorten the tunnel up significantly and slow down my motion. Thoughts on that or other things to try just in case today wasn’t just a puppy brain fart?😂
We also worked on lead out. He was a good boy! Note: on the platform he is not required to have a specific position so I let that go for those reps. On the ground though, sit required. 🙂
Let me know what you think!
Kristin>>Sometimes a good laugh is best when things go wrong LOL! It was not that bad of a session LOL!!>>
Oh yes, I may have sounded sad at the end but there definitely were a lot of laughs afterwards off camera. 😄But I thought of a better item to start the discrimination work with (a mat – Duh!!) and so I tried that, plus didn’t have them so close together, and it went better. Not perfect of course, but he was certainly thinking.🙂
We also worked on some tunnel entries and exits. After seeing the video of this I could see that what I was feeling on the inside (lack of confidence about my handling) indeed translated to what I was doing. I was late a few times and kind of uncertain in my motion as well. But we can improve for next time, so let me have your feedback!
Thanks!
KristinHi! First, serpentine training is going well since our last check-in on that. No video to review there, but we are making good progress.
I tried out some discrimination work today and it was kind of a train wreck.😂 I feel like I did so many things wrong with the sessions I tried today. My poor puppy!
First, I realized that “kennel” and “tunnel” verbals probably sound too much he same for this exercise. He kind of knows “crate” verbal a little so I tried it out with not the best results. I even tried lots of other objects he knows the commands for like “hop it up” on a balance disk (not on video) and getting on a platform (he was MUCH too sticky to that thing). Some of the things not on video may having you spitting out your coffee in wonderment of just what the heck we were doing!!🤣
But here’s what I’m choosing to submit for feedback. I did just think of another object I didn’t try that maybe has more equal value to the tunnel than any of the other things tried (except kennel, which we maybe would eliminate given the verbal is too similar).
For what it’s worth:
Let me know what you think!
KristinHi! Angled jump idea makes total sense. Tried on the first couple reps tonight. Worked well to help with the understanding for sure! Then I straightened them out a little and moved on. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to add then tunnel, then straighten, or keep angled when adding the tunnel. Based on the second to last rep I think I should’ve keep the bigger angle, but he still did well overall I thought.
It was fun to see him get it. 😀 Sorry it was borderline too dark for video though.
~Kristin
