Heard back from Silvia!

I finally got all my videos edited and together to send to her for critique. Here is her reply -

"Anyway, first: very good job so far! So sorry to hear about everything that happened to Spur, it seems all the bad things always happen to sensitive dogs that take the longest to recover... But he sure looks completely recovered on your videos! I can imagine new dog-walks can be a problem for him, but only experience can help with that, so just try to get him used to as many different dog-walks as possible.

From the videos you sent, I have a feeling that his only problem is that his natural striding is a little too short to do two hits on a down ramp only, but it still sometimes takes him that deep that it's impossible for him to do the third one and then he is too high. But he seems to have good understanding of his job and he will sometimes even shorten one stride before the last one a little bit in order to be able to fit in another one. It is sometimes hard though, that's why I think he sometimes has hind feet together. It looks like two hits only won't take him far enough though, even when he is running full speed, he is too high with two hits. Meaning that you should just go with the three hits.

For three hits, you don't want to extend his stride any more, so at this point, you're actually making it harder for him by throwing a ball - so it's especially good that he has such a good successful rate even with added excitement of the ball that makes it harder for him to do those three steps. Meaning that you're pretty much finished with your project. Try to simply include dog-walks in normal sequences now and run it as any other obstacle. You can still throw a ball in advance here and there, but, even though it's so much fun to train the dog-walk, I think yours is pretty much finished. Now I think it's fast enough and it's reliable enough, especially because I believe it will be even more reliable without the thrown toy. Try and let me know.

bye, silvia"

Wow, not exactly what I had expected. She sure has a good eye. I know he has more speed at two strides on the down, but she is sure right that then he hits higher. I agree with her that he seems to know his job. I really do believe that. Since doing this work he has not missed a contact, yet, at a trial. Good boy!!!


Today we are throwing a party for my sister's 50th. I am putting together a photo board and came across this photo of me and her.........