[Sandy Mainardi]

Also, I never did any threadle work (that is when you are saying “close” right?). I have a word for it with Benni “in-in” but I haven’t done any games to introduce this for Brioche. I think the game for this week trying to do that may be too complicated for him. He can probably get the serp and the tunnel part of it. Any suggestions for introducing it?

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
On the backside wraps, are you using a verbal? Is that verbal different than the backside/slice verbal? And then does there have to be a different verbal for right vs left backside wrap?

Also, I know you are using right and left for the rear crosses. I have forever used “switch” as my rear cross verbal. I have a separate verbal for a turn on the flat “turn” I don’t know how much I want to change my verbals this time around as “switch” has always worked for me. I did add the right vs left wrap verbal. And I am anticipating I will need a RC wrap verbal….which I currently have no verbal for that but I do see a need for it but then am I going to give a separate word for right vs left RC wrap? My head is spinning…too many words!

Not sure I have the space to do the RC exercise in my basement but I can try. I hate skipping games because I can’t do them outside right now.

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
YT was a real bugger today. Hours to upload videos.

Zig Zag games. He didn’t do well when I added the 4th wing but seemed okay with 3 wings.

Then I tried another round of send/serp vs send/FC. Even after watching the demo video again, I still feel like I’m not doing something right on the FC part.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Oh good lord, well, maybe round 3 of send n serp I will actually get it right! Oye! I will do that when I get home from the weekend trial.

Today for the first time I asked a friend to play the role of leash runner at the practice jump while practicing his start line routine and stays. His mind exploded! LOL. He kept sitting facing backwards where she was standing. So I used a food lure and worked thru it. But he was able to do it! Mostly he wanted to say hello to her but also he really wanted to make sure he could see her too. I’m teaching him the same warm up routine that I do with Benni also. I can’t believe he is 11 months old.

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Okay, I tried the send/serp game again. Thank you for the feedback. I didn’t think of angling the jump to help him. I also watched the collar grab videos. You can see that I am trying really hard in this video not to grab him so thanks for those videos too. Yikes…bad habit.

When our sessions are done he does not want to go back upstairs….he gets a bit defiant when I call him to climb the stairs with me. Guess I will need to either pick him up and carry him or put a leash on him to signal that our training is done. He would very much like to stay and play.

Decided to hold off on the next game as we are leaving for CT today for an agility trial shortly. Have a great weekend…fingers crossed it really is NOT going to snow on Sunday AGAIN!

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
We moved on to the serpentine game. We struggled with the right turn send and I believe it is because I am much better cueing with my right arm than my left plus I guess I was not where I needed to be to get the serp although initially he did it just fine. So a bit of back chaining to break the error pattern. I guess I jumped the gun moving the wing out too much. Ultimately moving the wing closer did the trick. I will definitely revisit this tomorrow after he has had time to process and get your feedback to improve upon this.
I do have a question on giving the “right” or “left” verbal on the wing….isn’t that actually a wrap?

Looking at the zig zag video, seems that you pair the verbal simultaneous with the arm cue to release the dog. I just don’t want to confuse him on his stay by releasing when I move my arm. Is that a problem? Can I say break and the do the arm push or will that be a late cue?

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

After sleeping on that, we tried again this morning.

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
We didn’t get to do the games from last week due to snow on the ground. Not enough space down in the basement for those.
Tonight we tried the directional proofing game:

I was looking ahead at the serp games that also include a backside. I’m trying to remember from MaxPup 1, did we do a backside game? I somehow don’t remember teaching him a “back” verbal. I will have to go back and review what we did.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
We are back from the trial in CT. Snow on the ground so basement training tonight. Added as much distance as I could in the space. Is the placement of the wrap wing correct? Not sure if it needs to be pushed more in line with the middle of the jump so his line is directly to the center of the bar? Anyway, I left it unedited, bloopers and all. I think maybe I am supposed to throw the toy with my outside arm or doesn’t it matter?

Set Point done with your suggestion of stationary and then moving toy but not already placed out there.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Oye YouTube. Here is the correct video:

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
BTW, YES we had a fabulous extended stay in FL, missed all the snow back home. Still riding high from our (so far) lifetime achievement! A dream come true for me.

Brioche is absolutely in need of a group class. He had the hardest time with the name game of all the things we did in the first class. Responding to his name with all the distractions. So I am going to be doing a lot of that game this weekend at the agility trial.

Here the games we did today…outside…in the wind (wasn’t crazy wind but enough). He was particularly distracted when coming out of the right end of the tunnel. I expect the more we work outside, the better this will get. We supposed to be getting snow over the weekend so outdoors it was today. The other thing he needs to work thru is ignoring the toy if it is in the hand that I am sending him with. Since this was all new, I tried to keep switching the toy so he didn’t have to deal with it in his face while I was trying to send him…however with the long toy, it’s hard to finagle that at times. After watching the video, I see that I was on his line and therefore blocking his sight to the tunnel. Trying to manage his distraction and keeping my handling clear was apparently difficult for me!

As for the discrimination, with zero practice ahead of time, I thought he was brilliant!

We are leaving for a trial in CT tomorrow afternoon so this completes our work for the week unless I get some time in the morning to maybe try the set point again or something.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Yes, the squeaky sheep was tied to the holee roller but he was not interested in the roller so I took it off and he liked the sheep on its own. Good to know. That toy was “invented” for Benni who also loves to have a party of one to this day…

Set point exercise. The hardest part was getting Brioche to sit close to the bar. He tends to back up when he sits. Also, I stopped using the remote for the MM after the first time because it wouldn’t stop (I had no food inside of it). I just used it as a larger target than a food bowl but placed the food down as he came over the jump. Other than that, I think it went well but we’ll see what your observations are!

Handling Game: Wind in the hair. I am going to try to use “tight” for left wrap and “wrap” for right wrap. We’ll see how that goes.

And a brief video using a bit more distance with toy planted:

I have started him in a competition puppy group class for obedience. There are no puppy agility classes going on around here and he will learn good skills from the obedience class. He has never worked in a group so it’s all good.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
You asked and here we go:

We are going to the AKC agility invitationals in Orlando. Where are you going to be doing agility training?

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Ready to try the advanced serpentine. Initially I didn’t feel right about where I tossed the reward but I guess it was okay. I see that I didn’t quite keep fluidly moving but got better on the last rep. I am confused about executing the actual hand cue so as not to release on my hand target motion? So I was kind of moving into position with my hand already back.

Then we had some fun with Benni on the stealth self-control. Benni is quite happy to be a participant! It actually went well! They are very competitive for my attention so I think it wasn’t as hard for Brioche as I thought because he was getting ALL the attention! LOL

We are leaving next Sunday for the invitationals so I’ll see how much time I have over the next week to do videos but I think we have at least tried everything once aside from the flyball stuff. I’m sure the car will be packed full but I’ll try to fit maybe his fitness platforms or something that we can work with since we will be staying down there until the end of December.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Tried the decel game this morning.

Will try the advanced serp later in the day.

Thanks.
Sandy

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