[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

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

Finally, some nice weather.
Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Pattern Game:

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Here are the NFC runs from Friday. It was a small, night time trial so I didn’t have a buddy to video my pre-run activity but the gate person was able to video my runs.

Run 1, I broke up a lot more than run 2. Kind of wanted to see what I got each time and will go from there.

Thanks.
Sandy
PS do these count in the 5 minute tally for sequences or is that for the MaxPup content only?

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi,
On the sends…do you say “go” so they keep going to look ahead or do you cue the wrap with the wrap verbal?

We have a young dog seminar with Rebecca Thrift this afternoon and then I’m driving to PA for trials. If I get a chance to upload any videos from the seminar tonight, I will. I know today is the deadline for videos.

I haven’t registered for Max Pup 4 yet. Will you be sending out a reminder for that? I know you sent one but I’m sure it’s buried in my e-mail somewhere. Can’t remember if there was a discount code or not.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

HI Tracy,

I left the decel game set up for today to try one time doing all the things. Of course, our first attempt instead of taking the tunnel, he chose to chase a butterfly…SMH. So I started the video over.
I think when he came back out of the tunnel and I ran to the second jump, I pushed on his line and he took the middle of the bar. I was trying to get tucked in by that wing. Is that necessary? Could I have stayed lateral to the wing he was about to wrap or is it the plan to stand where the bar connects to the wing? The send was for a right wrap which you said he doesn’t do as easily.
For the send, since we are sending with dog side arm, doesn’t that block connection? Or do we connect as the dog exits the tunnel and then send? Not sure if I am doing this correctly.

Here is novice class today. The course is set up for Rebecca Thrift to come in and doing some fancy stuff SOOO, we got to try some layering and some “out” things. I opted to break it down for the lead out because I thought it might be a weird picture for him but he totally knew what to do so probably didn’t need the toy thrown in the beginning as he actually was headed to the tunnel. I was just off on my handling to get the blind done because I had questions on if he would be understanding this complex picture instead of just going for it!!!

Part 2 – he got extremely distracted in the back of the barn and I had to go grab him. He lost interest in his toy at that point. But he still worked.

But wow, some pretty good stuff in there! We didn’t get a chance to put the 2 parts together. Class ran out of time. Bummer.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Okay, finally actually did the decel game! I’m not sure I did the send right. He did it better on the one side than the other but could be my mechanics.

Thanks.
Sandy

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