[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Tried the proofing with arousal. I can’t have Benni running around in the yard without my full attention on him (coyotes last weekend) so I thought him barking on the cot might be stimulating but didn’t seem to be. The last one using the see saw bang game with his ultimate fave (flying squirrel) really got the best of him…but then I started thinking maybe I shouldn’t use that toy for this because that is the one toy he runs instead of trots to get during his DW training AND that is a running contact. So I don’t want to muddle up the DW…he was running off the see saw initially. What do you think? Well, I only did a few reps so hopefully no harm done if it’s something I should only use for DW training.

Driving Ahead Sequences:

I am chronically late with my RC verbals. I did the one sequence twice to try to do it better but still late and he didn’t see the next jump. But overall, I thought he did very well with these. A bit of trouble finding the far end of the tunnel. Maybe I should not have led out past the near end or maybe just young dog stuff.

Nice weather for training finally!

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
At long last, we got some video. I decided to take my class time at JAG to work thru the TSA game pretty much doing the remote reinforcement advanced steps and on the last rep asked him to jump up into my arms at the end of a sequence. This was a pretty good test because it is highly distracting there and he was very into sniffing the ground. It is unedited so you can see everything we did and how it went.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Been awhile since I’ve posted. Between Brioche’s eye procedure and now my situation (see your e-mail), no sequences yet. So I did the A.R.E. games with him.

For the LOEO game, I stepped it up and did it in the yard instead of the front porch like last time and then moved from food to a toy for more active engagement.

Steps 3, 4, 5 for Remote Reinforcement. We took small breaks between each step progression.

I have Benni jump into my arms for end of run routine. Brioche can do that so I will start to add that in as well. No video of that. One thing, he growls when he jumps up. Not nasty but just amped up. Not sure what to do about that. He does it other times too. Sometimes a sassy bark too. Oye.

As for the chill game…this dog is an impatient whiner. I brought him inside to take a break while recording the remote reinforcement game and put him in the front of the fan, on leash and was playing the up and down game. He just wanted to go back outside and do more stuff. Whine, whine, whine. I wasn’t able to slow up on the food delivery much at all. If I did, he would whine and I don’t want to reward that by starting the game “on demand”. So I would wait for the slightest silence and start up and down again. Is this his personality? Last week after novice class at JAG, I had him on leash and was having a conversation with someone. He was very good about that. He just chilled out. I guess because he had already done all the things and we were done for the day, he knew that and just chilled out? It’s the first time that has happened.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
No video but I went to a trial up in Saugerties. I tried the chill game in the crating area but over by a wall where there were no crates and no people or dogs close by. All I got was whining. He did not understand why I was standing there and we were not “doing” anything. I find he is better at this game if I am sitting (which I know is not the point of this particular game). Since I did not want to reward whining, I tried to toss food at a millisecond of silence. I did not spend too much time doing this as the environment was just too stimulating for him to “chill”.

Also, I hope this is just an adolescent phase but, um, how to say this…he is showing his male part big time when meeting people. OMG. Also, he has never learned how to control his mouth. Wants to bite clothing or going at people who try to pet him (husband included…STILL) with an open mouth…not with the intention to bite but playful. If the right person works with him and makes a fist so he can’t grab hands and then reverts to licks, we praise him for that. Husband is working on that too and once he calms down, he is better. This dog may never get a CGC!

Hoping to get some of the homework done this week.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Did 3 of the A.R.E games on the front porch. He is very good at offering a sit in the house without being asked every time we come in from pottying (leash off game). This did not happen outside today. And as for the chill game, I know that if we were at a show, he would be wanting to visit other dogs without some rewards but I do work on him sitting with me in the crating area where he will lie down for short periods.

Unfortunately, he is having an eye procedure tomorrow for distichia and ectopic cilia so he will probably not be able to do much in the next few days. I will practice these low key games with him so he can have the cone off for a bit. We missed our novice class today due to weather. I had planned on doing the remote reinforcement game there and getting some video but that didn’t happen.

I did the accordion grid today to train 12″. I will e-mail it separately.

I’m reeling from my friend who just lost her 4 year old poodle to 2 pit bulls attacking it after busting out of their front door while she was walking in her neighborhood. They punctured his lung and he died. She just lost her other 8 year old poodle last year to cancer. I feel sick over this. She has no dogs now. So tragic and horrific.

Hopefully, Brioche will heal up quickly. Benni had to have the same procedure. Looks really awful in the beginning. I’m not looking forward to this.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Here is our find my face game:

Thanks.

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Do you use a verbal for a 180 exit from a tunnel? Do you use a word or a sound? Now I’m trying to come up with yet another word!

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Here is an edited clip of novice class today. I did not teach a verbal for tight tunnel exit so at first he blasted forward.Then I did a physical cue that he read very well. So the next time I rewarded him and then did the sequence of 13 obstacles. I forgot that we changed the plan after the weaves so he popped out at pole 10 from my pressure to turn left. After that we just went straight and did a wrap. I’m not sure what category to use for this video. We have volume dial at the start line and due to extremely bad handling to the last jump, we had a “find my face” moment.

We don’t have class next week but maybe the week after that I can try the hidden toy, remote reward thing. Or I could just do it at home.

We have another young dog seminar on Thursday at UDog.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
We went to UDog today and did a young dog workshop with Emily Klarman. Here is a video doing the pattern games and a few tricks while another dog was working:

We did 2 rounds (different courses with different skills) plus we got to pick a skill we personally wanted to learn how to teach our dog. I picked getting a backside from lateral distance so that was round 3.

Would you like to see any of those videos? Do you want them edited (I can edit out any pauses for instructor feedback). Or you can scroll thru what you don’t need to see. Let me know. I tried SO hard not to stop for any mistakes. I did pretty good except one time I impulsively stopped when he hit a bar pretty hard because I stood in his way. I know…really bad place to stop and play. Nothing like rewarding what you DON’T want. As soon as I did it, I knew that was not the place to stop so I quickly went on after he tugged a second. Hopefully that impulse that I have will fade away!

I have to say he was amazing. We did lots of sniffing outside after each run.

Let me know if you would like me to post any or all of those videos from 3 rounds at the workshop. Round 1 included a long lead out but fairly straight forward course. Round 2 was much more complicated in comparison including layering, going thru boxes, rear crossing, wrapping…and the serp out of a tunnel which I blew the first attempt….occurred to me he had never seen that scenario so I lost the confidence in handling it normally.

Thank you.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Okay, I will try very hard not to be a perfectionist! I get what you are saying. What about the weave poles if he misses the entrance or skips a pole or pops out etc? Am I not supposed to fix that in the moment? That would bother me not to fix more than the other stuff.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

Novice Class today. I did not edit but of course you can scroll thru. Not sure if you wanted to see the things in between resets etc. Second half Linda had me do a huge lateral lead out layering the poles. I never would have done that left to my own ideas…and he did it! Wow.
Round 1:

Round 2:
different person videotaping (not so great) plus we had a major distraction trying to get into the gate with a newbie person and his turvuren thinking his dog could say hi to mine. Dog lunged at Brioche (not aggressively) and Brioche lost interest in me at that moment.The guy didn’t have the sense to move away so I just had to get Brioche in the gate and tell the person not a good idea to be hanging out there. So you can see the guy walking past outside while Brioche is at the start line. Also he was more tired because it was round 2 so there is that. Hence, you will probably want to scroll thru parts of this. We changed up the course and he was hesitant at the wall jump so I finally had to change my plan and get in closer to it to support him. Lots of learning here. But first time doing 12 poles in class. He’s only done 12 poles in one training session at home.

Sometimes I feel like his jumping isn’t quite gauged right – rear a little high? These jumps are still at 10″. Should I be concerned about that and change something?

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
The last rep is sequence 4. I tried the BC version of sequence 3 and then he knocked the bar on the turn to the tunnel. With the sun glare, I’m not sure if you can tell why? The ground in my practice area is not very level so I am not sure if that affects him at all. He didn’t have a problem with the bar except when I did the blind so maybe it was just he didn’t see it in time.

Sequence 5 – something is weird about this opening for both my dogs. Benni was insistent on taking the backside of 2 even when I used a serp arm or tried using in-in. He finally did get it. Then Brioche was doing something different, he was wrapping away from me (I have been working on the threadle wrap using one wing or one jump). He did it more than once but I edited most of that out. Here you can see it the one time. And when I did try the serp, he still did the turn-away wrap. Finally we got it.
Was it the angle of approach to jump 2 making it seem so hard for them? Just weird especially for Benni. Maybe the way I had my chest facing was not correct. I have no clue but I’m sure you do!

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
I’m heading out this morning for a class. I did send you an e-mail to your personal address with a bunch of videos to review on Benni. Did you receive it? I sent it a few days ago. If you want me to use a different e-mail just let me know.

Will post more later.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

From what I have seen people do in FEO runs is whatever they want to work on… for example, start line in various parts of the course (though in AKC you cannot throw a toy which sucks). So I wouldn’t have to run a premiere course by the numbers. Jumpers I would have to enter him in novice. Also 6 poles novice, 12 poles premiere in case I want to see how he does with weaves in public. I will have to look at how much time you get in FEO in novice…hopefully the same as all levels.

I have been contemplating whether this “around” verbal many people use might be worth training for 180s and I guess they also use it for 270s perhaps? Otherwise, I use 2 directionals like “right, right” or “left, left”.

I feel like I use the directionals too much with Benni. Once I get him turning on a pinwheel, for instance, do I need to keep saying my directional for all the jumps in the pinwheel? Although if there is a tunnel looming somewhere I do say it especially to avoid that. Also, do I need to cue turns with my outside arm as well as using the verbal directional? I think maybe I have developed some overkill in my handling…not sure.

I want to keep it as clear and simple for Brioche and clean up any unnecessary of bad habits that I have.

In the video above with Brioche, I guess I don’t gauge where I should position myself for lead out pivots correctly.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

PS Official UKI measurement is 15″ so he can jump 12″ (or 8″S) in UKI. This was also the temp measurement for AKC as the official is a VMO for both.

I have done set point for 12″ and a couple of times the accordion grid for 12″. He does better with the set point than when he has to adjust his striding as the 12″ jump moves further and further away. Should I continue to do this every few days until he looks smooth at all distances before trying 12″ in his novice class? I think we tried setting one bar at 12″ a couple of weeks ago and the rest at 10″. He did okay with that.

Also, maybe in September since trials are opening already, I was thinking of trying FEO with him in AKC. But it would have to be novice JWW or premiere JWW since he does not have contacts now. There isn’t much UKI around. Of course the one that is in NJ in Sept is on a weekend I will be doing AKC.

Thanks.
Sandy

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