[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
We had a private lesson with Jessica today. We worked on the turf in the skills ring, not the main arena and different from the matted puppy room we usually do. His behavior was similar to being outside. There were a couple of random people who would walk thru (with and without a dog). Jessica had his toy to reward him for what we were working on as she thought the manners minder was not all that thrilling for him. However, he would fixate on the distraction and she had to animate the toy to draw his attention back. I have never had a dog like this who would not focus on me and it’s annoying. I don’t feel like it is teenage brain as he has been like this from the beginning especially with the windy outdoors- things moving and blowing around issue. But, of course the teenage brain is NOT helping for sure. Good news is he did not break his stay at any time. He works for 30 min. We only got to do the ground mat work for contacts and also this front feet behavior Jess is teaching for see saw which is completely new to me.

And, yes, we are still dealing with a GI issue. Lots of mucous in the stool and pretty much not solid. The vet said to just stick with cooling foods (no chicken, lamb, goat etc) as per the Chinese medicine philosophy. Turkey and beef are okay. So I am sticking with one formula of food for now and have to gently cook the raw and add a digestive enzyme. He is very thin for the amount that he had been eating so doesn’t seem to be utilizing all that he eats. It will get sorted out but I’ve had issues with Benni all his life and he is about to go for an abdominal ultrasound so I am not happy that Brioche is starting with issues. Too much stress added onto my hamstring 🙁

I bought some grilled steak slices today and will see if that ups the ante for Brioche without causing additional GI issues. I will be able to start grilling soon….I hope. It’s freezing cold and snow flurries AGAIN.

Anyway, I did walking agility today with Benni and he was SO happy to be out doing something fun.

I signed up for MaxPup 3 but I’m pretty behind on all the handling stuff since I cannot do it until I can at least jog.

I have a question on the release from a stay. I forget how I did it but Benni will take a jump or a tunnel without me saying “break” if I just say what I want…”jump” or “tunnel” which is what I use when those are the first obstacle and I am lateral to him. Brioche doesn’t move until he hears “break”. So I’m not sure if I want to mess with that at this point in time so as not to muddle his stay?

That’s it for now. Didn’t have time to do any training at home.

Thanks.
Sandy
PS when does max pup3 begin?

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
As for yesterday, yes he stayed….only because no leaves were blowing or flying bird shadows passing by…he would have totally been out of there and also totally deaf…Once he starts the chase he does NOT respond to anything I say to him.

I had 5 min to run out and try the next step for the lead out with the toy. I didn’t set the camera up very well so you can’t see me at the end. Far from perfect but I wanted to get repetition outside and see if he can stop looking everywhere but where he’s supposed to. So, far from perfect video set up but on the very last rep, I thought he nailed it. Next to last rep, I released him thinking he was looking at the toy but not really.

Did new games get posted? I didn’t see anything yesterday when I looked.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

Had hoped to get more done on this but I have learned not to get greedy when working outside:

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Sorry these videos are not great quality as it was starting to get dark. Though I did not post the video I did in the basement, it went MUCH better down there. Partly because there wasn’t a lot of room for lateral placement of the wing and partly because no distractions down there.

So I tried it outside. Not great. Very distracted. And he would not look at the toy placed on the ground. One time I stumbled getting into position which caused him to break his stay. So as you can see when it was REALLY getting dark but I wanted to try a different approach by tossing the toy from my lead out position…that got his attention and he took the jump…and did not break but he was close to it.

With toy toss:

I guess you can let me know what I can do better. This didn’t go that well. Also, when I step away he moves his front foot towards me which changes his set up to not exactly facing the jump.
Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Got to work outside today…and the leaves were blowing so we had to stop doing the accordion grid and come back later in the day to try it. I said “break” just as a leaf was blowing right at him and he chose to chase the leaf rather than take the jump. Happened twice so I just stopped and then came back to it later.

Set Point – front view as per your request:

Accordion

I did try the focus forward idea on the lateral lead out but as soon as the toy was not out there, he just stared at me. He would only look forward at the jump if the toy was out there. He was able to hold the stay until released however. I never trained Benni to focus forward. He does fine. I take the step to push out toward the first jump and he takes it.

Hope you had a fun weekend!

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Next level up on the set point to 8″. You can see clearly in this video how he slouches back in the sit position when I walk away.

Rain, rain, rain today. So lateral lead out in the basement. Worked both sides dog on left and dog on right:

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Well, got rid of the snow and then got sleet so back down in the basement we go…less than optimal with the space for this game but we got it done.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Well, we do have a patch of grass that is workable. Most of my wings are down in the basement so I just used some cones to set this up outside.
Get Out:

I attempted to do rear crosses and after watching the video just smack my head. I have a feeling I have bad habits doing rear crosses with Benni but he knows what I want and just does it. I will try again another time and see if I can get my handling corrected. Not even worth watching!!!

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Tried the set point as you suggested. Second bar at 6″, 4 ft spacing. His horrible sitting posture is making me crazy. I have been working with him on a platform and on the inflatable stuff. Not only do his knees bow in but his back is slouched. I never had to work on this with Benni. He just had good posture and positioning even from a very young age. I feel like this will affect Brioche’s take off from the start line.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
He turns 1 year old tomorrow!

The conundrum with trying to set up the video so you can see what you want to see is the space restraint. I have the camera against the wall so can’t pan out any further and the 2 posts are in the way so I try to center the jumps there. I know you want to see the side view for his jumping. If you don’t care about seeing how he grabs the toy after the last jump then I can lead out further with it but it will be out of the frame by the time he reaches it. I could maybe try to angle the camera somewhat to get more of everything in the picture but then not sure you will see what you want to see.

Even when the snow melts, it will be extremely muddy in my practice yard. Ugh.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Worked on jumping today with a large toy as per your suggestion. He ticked the bar on the first zig zag but other than that looked pretty good I think.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
I did a couple of the games with as much distance with the set ups as I could.

Find the Jump, we got up to 15 ft but not enough room to get up to 20 ft distance to the jump.

Rear Cross – not a lot of room and on the one side he has to turn into the wall so not the greatest but the best I can do without my yard. There is no agility place closer than 90 minutes for me to rent. And that one is dirt. He has been on the turf at United Dog once.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Still snowing here. I was looking at the RC video but I’m not sure about trying it if I have to run. Hamstring is not even close to doing much besides walking. Not sure if I have the space to try it. I’ll see if I might be able to set it up. I think we have done all the other games that I’m able to.

As for the food and eating situation. I finished up a package of gently cooked beef (different brand) and he did eat that. I just opened a new package of the Viva Raw turkey and he would NOT eat it. So I gently cooked it on the stove and then he did eat it. I have a lot of the Viva Raw puppy blend (beef/turkey) in the freezer. I was going to use it up and move on to adult food. So he is boycotting raw? Seems weird that the new delivery I got was when this all started although I seem to remember a bit of hesitency prior to that. I e-mailed the company to see if anything changed. I hate dealing with dogs that won’t eat. So stressful. And I don’t want to set a precedent of jumping thru hoops to make them eat.

Let me know if you think a walking version of the RC could work. I haven’t done anything with RC since the target game. I certainly won’t be going anywhere today!

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

I think zig zags are one of his favorite games. I did a 5 foot bar with no space between the wing and jump bar. He slipped one time probably because I was slow on my cue.

Seems I am more coordinated with my out signal on one side vs the other. The video for sure shows me how crappy my mechanics was when we started out here (my weaker side I guess). It was a very incremental distance increase due to the space we had to work with.

On the tandem turns, I could not figure out if it mattered with the wings whether the jump cups were on a specific side or not. Brioche is not all that thrilled with this kind of work but maybe because we did this last and he was getting tired.

He ate a gently cooked food this morning by Raised Right. Have not tried his raw yet. And now Benni had me up twice in the night. But he does have a history of GI stuff. Not fun.

AAANNDDD…another 12-18 inches of snow coming tomorrow. Blah.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

Here is what we tried today.

Advanced Out Game. I only did the FC for the safety of my current hamstring situation.

I attempted to do the tandem turn but for the life of me I couldn’t get the mechanics on one side so I’ll save it for another day. He was getting pretty good on the side I got correct.

Today still eating the boiled chicken and pumpkin. Tomorrow I will try a small amount of his raw and see if he will eat it.

Sandy

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