Maddie is nearly 17 months now. I am pretty sure she is about 26 and half inches tall. Basically, she is the size of my male, Travis, who passed away five years ago, but not quite as heavy. He probably was 5 pounds heavier.
Ziva and Maddie in April 2013 (above and below)
My friend, Maggie, and her Dutch Shepherd, Ziva, came out to train on my field last week. We used to let Maddie and Ziva play together when they were younger so Maggie and Ziva are a huge distraction for Maddie. The last time they came to train, Maddie was awful!
This time, Maddie was awesome! I felt like Maddie was interested and attentive to me the entire time. Towards the end, we even had both dogs on the field and took turns doing sequences and again, Maddie stayed with me.
Here is a short video of our training:
Also, someone asked in the comments last time why I was using two methods for training weave poles, 2X2s and Weave-A-Matics. I am playing around with both because 2X2s are great for teaching entrances to the weave poles from all different angles, but it encourages the dog to bounce through them with 2 feet at a time. Typically, this works well for small dogs and it works well for Seven. But she is my only greyhound to use the 2 foot weaving style.
The Weave-A-Matics encourages a 1 foot style which generally works better for big dogs. Below is a picture of Travis weaving with the 1 foot style.
Riley usually does too.
So I am experimenting with both methods to see what I can get with Maddie. After teaching Seven to weave, I am definitely not opposed to the 2 foot style if it is the dog's preference, but Maddie is 2 and half inches taller, quite a bit longer, and 10 pounds heavier than Seven so I want to make sure she is encouraged to give it a try.
