A long overdue update, but much to discuss. Over the last couple of months, one of the biggest changes is we’ve decided to see how my dog does biting legs instead of the bicep, a.k.a. a leg dog. So far, it seems to be going well. From a functional standpoint, a leg dog makes a lot of sense. To start, there’s less chance of a dog missing a target- it’s harder for a decoy to move a leg as quickly and far than an arm. In PSA, the decoys don’t “esquive,” or escape incoming dogs, but in other sports they do. In addition, the dog itself is obviously able to change direction more quickly since he has four feet on the floor instead of being up in the air. Lastly, certain dogs can generate more power from having all their feet on the ground, much like a boxer’s punch originates all the way down at the ground and carries all the way up to his/her fist. Since my dog’s probably not going to ever win a medal for being a hard biter, at least he can affect a decoy’s mobility.

The other big news is my bite suit arrived. It took about two months, which was faster than expected. The type of suit I ordered is made to measure overseas, so there’s the actual manufacturing process plus shipping, customs, etc., to the US. I went with a Seynaeve suit that I ordered through http://www.ringsuits.com, and couldn’t have been happier with the service and help that Thad Peterson provided. He had lots of good suggestions, and is able to order “hybrid” suits like mine, which has a competition (lightest weight) body with semi-training (mid-weight) arms, plus extra cuffs on the bicep which are geared toward PSA. That way, I get some extra padding on the highest wear area, and once the cuffs are worn through, they can be removed and replaced, theoretically giving extra life to the jacket.

It’s going to take a while to break in the suit- as you can see the pants can stand up on their own right now. I’ve gotten a couple days in it so far, so eventually we’ll get there. The other news is I don’t get knocked down every time on escape bites (where the decoy is running away), which I think means I’m figuring something out. I’m including some proof…