[Sandy Mainardi]

Question on the intermediate toy retrieve. After watching my retrieve video from yesterday, I’m thinking he already does this? Or am I missing the point of this exercise? Can you clarify? 🙂

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Worked on the handling again, adding the BC. Ignore the last couple of reps when I got delusional thinking I could add the decel/pivot. Clearly going to need to break that down with food in my hand and no toy to start with but I was there and gave it a shot. Should have known he would just drive to the toy after doing that several reps. My bad. LOL

After that we worked on the sit/stay. I put the cones there to act as a wall to line him up if he wasn’t coming to my side. He didn’t really need them but then after watching it back, I think it did help him stay put while I moved forward and threw the food backward. His sit is very sloppy posture- wise…not a good tuck sit. Should I work on that? He had one oops which was on me. This is going to go VERY slowly with him because he is twitchy.

Ended with the toy retrieve in the hallway. After that he got free play with the toy for a minute and then a snuffle mat. Small space is key for him…you see what he does down in the basement…

He is going up to MA with his handler on Oct. 16 and coming home Oct 26. That will be right as week 6 starts. Will there be a catch up week before the next session begins?

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Benni got his second NW3 title on Saturday!!! Brioche got several sniffaris during the day.

So as to be expected throwing the toy behind him blew his mind. Had to stay very close to the barrel.

Burned off that energy and then tried the stay exercise….which went way better than I expected it as he cannot stay still in any position when asked for a nanosecond. I had to practice the stay prior because I had not focused on a sit with him going into the breed ring. After watching the video, I see a couple times he didn’t get up but did scooch back a notch. Should I work on duration first or change my position compared to him or what? Obviously we need to work duration…
Also am I supposed to toss the food to try to get him to catch it or just toss it behind him? He is not a skilled catcher of food just yet.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Got the batteries for the manners minder (think he liked the toy better in the second quick video).

And with the toy… I didn’t throw it just for time sake to not have to chase it down but I realize throwing the toy is optimal. Sometimes for video you just want efficient!

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
I don’t usually use the outside arm for the tandem turn but I see the value here as a stronger connection to get the dog to pass by the prop on the advanced portion….oye does he love his prop which is a good thing. I wasn’t sure what to do about him just going to the prop when he wasn’t sent there…?

Once again, I am not at good doing things with my left hand as a human. I think the dog is fine with either side. I have the tunnel set up in the other side of the basement and you will see him looking there (we have not done the tunnel game yet- waiting for the batteries to arrive for my manners minder to make life easier). I wish I had one of those very short tunnels. Where did you get yours?

I actually do a lot of turn work with him on leash when we are outdoors so he is pretty good at them in general.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Note to self…don’t go train in the basement when the husband is due home…big distractions above us plus the lovely driveway sensor which I thought had finished going off but no…

Anyway, first rep, I forgot about my feet but remembered quickly.

Did not attempt toy on the ground as this was long enough and had the disruption which wasted some time getting his focus back.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Just giving it another go to clean things up on the collection sandwich:

Then I printed up the diagram this time (um should’ve done that the first time!) to get the placement of the marker right on the barrel. I forgot to put a collar on him….due to the show coat I don’t keep a collar on him so I just plain forgot so I lured him into position with food for this video. I think the food slowed him down on the send perhaps because he was thinking about that.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Went out to the yard do the resilience pattern game again…of course no leaves were blowing today which for once I was hoping for. He still gets extremely excited by things that move and now leaves are falling all the time. Whee…

Upped the excitement here…once he got the idea he didn’t go to the distractor.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Playing catch up, tried the toy race game…I lost. Kept it very short just to say we tried it because we were working on week 3 stuff too.

More on parallel path and introducing rear cross. I didn’t think I was going to be able to try it but at the very end I finally did.

Onward to my attempt and the blind cross/collection/turn and go…I am CLEARLY challenged on my left side…I was so confused. However, we gave it our best shot.

And lastly, we tried the wrap foundation part 3…I think I did it all backwards as far as the line placement on the floor. Whatever the case, I think he gets it. Maybe I wasn’t leaving as soon as I should have but it’s a starting point anyway.

We were at a nose work trial all day yesterday so we didn’t get to do any videos. Benni earned his first NW3 title in NACSW. He had a stellar day! Level 3 is definitely a challenge for the human.

A couple of these games for week 3 were very humbling for this handler! LOL

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
I tried the back up again using a prop. Not sure how you feel about using a prop in this manner but it’s how I taught Benni his back up so I thought I would try it.

Then we did more work on parallel path and counter motion (hope I remembered all of your tips). I tossed the food. Not sure how to get him to drive ahead of me to attempt the rear cross. It feels like when I try to hang back he matches my speed or something like that. Or maybe I’m just not doing it right. Anyway, overall he did well aside from a couple of misses on the prop.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Found it! Round 2 shaping back up! From yesterday

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Today we revisted the back up. Not getting a sense that he understands the backward walking without my body motion but much better on the hind foot target. Bet you can tell what trick we’ve been working on…LOL Waiting him out to move backward more was getting me his little bow.

Parallel path and counter motion. Generally pretty good. Towards the end he started offering me a wave so maybe that was a sign I just did too much and should have stopped. Of course I had a timer set for 3 min but did I remember to start it? NO! Sigh. He occasionally was fixating on food in my hand which I know he has to learn to ignore and also there was a small piece of blue tape that he kept checking out at one point. Again…maybe just did too much.

We’ll work on rear cross another day. Maybe I should work more on the parallel path first or not? I got a tad bit lateral for the parallel path. Very interesting approach for these concepts! I like it 🙂

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

I had done this with him before but not for awhile and so he didn’t seem to remember about finding a target with his back feet. I started with that. Then I went directly to back up since this was done as part of his novice trick title. However, maybe I should do the shaping exercise because he is clearly dependent on my body motion in order to do it? Anyway, this is what happened in our session for today.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Another round of next steps wrap foundation. I’m holding off on the toy races due to a knee issue. Maybe by Sunday, I can try it.
He only tried to “cheat” once but I blocked him with my leg. I notice when I change the distance at first, he seems more hesitant when wrapping to the left. I’m not sure if that just happens to be when I change the distance each time or it’s an actual side preference.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

The plank is actually not slippery at all. It has a thick layer of sand and paint. It’s a pretty rough, nubby surface. I think the slipping was him not being aware he was on the edge of the board. I can move slower. Also, I think he is so focused on me and the food that he isn’t thinking about foot placement? Jess had him doing this on a dog walk plank that was disassembled so just the one plank low to the ground. His performance was similar. She had 2 boards set up like a T so he could turn right or left at the end of the board and go to the other board and turn around to come back. I have to keep reminding myself to keep my hands at my side or behind me which helps him focus on his job better it seems.

Thanks for the feedback. 🙂
Sandy

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