A Good Feeling

Just a quick post to say that all is well.  We have noticed in Lexi's rehab that her rear left is considerably weaker.  It's odd because at the vet's she had no discrepancy in muscle tone between legs, but we're definitely seeing her struggle more when the emphasis is on her left rear leg.  Definitely something to work on and keep an eye on.

Lexi really seems to be getting the hang of the cavaletti.  She is better now than she is in this video, but you can see her adjust her pacing to correct striding at the beginning and doesn't switch back much.


And then...the best news of all, we went out and did a few minutes of agility.  Not much, and no bars (I did leave the tire up, but she only jumped it like 4 times, and that can't be any worse than her jumping on and off the bed!), but it was so much fun.  I'm so happy that she can get out there and do it.  We let Bentley go first, and she was whining and crying and groaning she was so jealous (which is why there is no video of Bentley...I was trying to hang out to wild woman!)

It's also fun to see that she certainly hasn't lost her love for the game!

W is for Weave!

Photo by Mike Lifer Photography

Finally got the chance to get outside and get some video of a training session.  It's nothing crazy--just more Alphabet Drills (have I mentioned how much I love this book?  It's perfect for a small yard and not a lot of equipment!)

Yesterday we worked on letter W, which as it turns out, stood for weaves!

Unfortunately the neighbor's dogs were outside all day, and Bentley didn't get to play at all.  In case I haven't mentioned it before, he is reactive (as are the neighbor's dogs) and I don't want him to get the chance to practice reactivity during agility--which should be fun and stress free for the dogs.

I'll take a moment to talk about Lexi's weaves.  She has always been a low and fast weaver--for which I am grateful.  Those are two things that I don't know how to teach!  Of course, the "fast" part comes with a price.  If she's going too fast, she sometimes doesn't want to slow down to get her entry.  We retrained her this past summer using the beginning stages of 2x2, combined with a lot of rear end awareness exercises and I think that helped.  But, as you'll see in the video, there are still approaches that she hasn't quite figured out.  I'd like to get that independent entry (priceless with a fast dog) but we definitely aren't there yet.

Weaves are one of the things that confuse me because I watch videos of top trainers with their dogs (Susan Garrett recently posted one of her dog Swagger while she used her NRM to let him know to try the entry again) and they have such patient, thoughtful dogs.  I'd love to see a video of someone with a dog who will do it wrong 99 times out of 100.  Does Lexi want to get it right?  Of course--she's a working dog!  But, does she also want to go fast?  You bet!  And those two don't always mix.  If I were to use an NRM over and over as she continued to miss her entry, I think she would give up--and I don't want that.  Of all things, her enthusiasm is what I love best (even if it has its drawbacks).  I say all of that to say that from a certain angle, Lexi will miss her entry 99 times out of 100.  Maybe even 100 times.  So, we decided to bring back the wires and see if that would help.  At certain points they do, and other times they seem to throw her off.

Here's a brief video with some high (and low!) lights.



In the first 4 seconds, I found it odd that she wanted to take that off set jump.  Of course I can see that she was trying to find her line (something we worked on quite a bit) but it really wasn't on the way to me.  She did this twice until I re-angled the jump and made it clearer.

Then you'll see that she blasts past the weaves.  I was able to eventually get her in from this angle, but only with serious deceleration on my part, as well as a bit of babysitting (waiting there with her).  From the other direction, she has less trouble.

Letter L, and Bentley is sick

Friday we came home and Bentley had gotten really sick.  He was sick all day and night Friday and Saturday.  We took him to the vet Saturday because I was worried that he might have another obstruction (for those who don't remember, he ate a bunch of leather in August and had to have surgery).  The vet felt that it was most likely a bug (she said those have been going around) and gave us some medicine to help. 

He seems to be feeling much better, and hasn't been sick since Saturday night.  I even went home at lunch today and check on him and he seemed fine.  I'll feel better once he's back on kibble (I'm feeding him chicken and rice) and things are back to normal.  Poor little guy.

The weirdest thing is that Lexi is really upset about something. Either she doesn't feel good (I hope that's not the case!) or she is worried because she knows something is up.

She is really sensitive, and we've obviously been acting differently (sitting with Bentley on the floor in the kitchen, the living room is completely gated off since we had to steam clean the carpets) but she won't leave us alone. She keeps asking to be held (even when we're walking around), and wants to be in my lap all the time.


Jonathan and I were taking turns sitting in the kitchen with Bentley (didn't want him on the carpet) and Lexi was so worried that she insisted on sitting on our laps as we watched Bentley (he's on the floor behind the chair napping!)

I also need to catch up with some of the videos I've recorded, so here's one from last week where we practice the letter L Alphabet Drill with Lexi.  I thought some of her turns were pretty nice!

Alphabet Drills and a Teeter Update

For Christmas I got the Nancy Gyes Alphabet Drills book.  It is AWESOME.  I will never be looking for sequences to practice ever again.  Just one letter can keep you busy for weeks.  I love that each set up is simple and small enough for a medium-sized yard.  I should also point out that the first thing that Bentley did was eat the packaging around the DVD and ruined it.  Nice.

Anyways, here's a quick video of letter A, AKA box drills (I'm behind on videos, and this one was taken right after Christmas)



Thought I'd give a quick teeter update.  This evening we lowered the teeter and tried to work more independent driving.  Jonathan reported that she would do it if he amped her up, ran with her, or encouraged her, but was less likely to do so if he just stood there, even with cheese on the end.  I decided to see if she would push herself more for turkey, and that's what we used this evening (just a note that each session is very short, maybe 10 reps?)  She had no issue going to the end.  A couple times I held the teeter in place and let her eat turkey out of my hand as I held it, and then dropped it as she continued to eat.  She had no issue with that (too busy eating to notice, I think!)

In class tonight she did the teeter on the first pass (and off of a forward send, which has been a scenario where she's opted to go around before).  I filled our trainer in on the issue and she felt that we were doing the right thing, just that I pushed her too hard by holding it immediately.  She recommended changing it just slightly every other day or so (by 1-2 lbs of weight).  I didn't think of it, but she made the point that if the teeter usually starts to tip right before she steps in the yellow, and I held it until she got to the end, I essentially changed the tipping point by 36" (the size of the contact zone).  That's a HUGE change.

Diana (my favorite blogging friend over at http://4dogcraziness.blogspot.com/) recommended that we try the two table method, and I like that idea.  But, we don't have two tables here...in fact we don't even have one!  But, I'm going to try to set this up during our building rentals this month to change up our methods a little bit.

Thanks to those that have contacted me with suggestions!