We were working in our cubicle and she could see other dogs through the opening, though basically ignoring them. A couple arrived late and when they went by, they let their dog stick its head in our cubicle (not supposed to happen). Instead of behaving badly, Gimme's eyes got big and then she turned to me and demanded treats. I was so proud. She was challenged, made a good decision, knew it was a good decision and then demanded recognition - gotta love that.
Then later in the same class, one of the students was working on the stairs. Our cubicle was at the bottom of one side of the stairs and I was working Gimme on something that was hard, when the lady comes down the first flight, onto the landing and before realizing we were there, started down the flight that would have brought her right into our cubicle! She was so focused on training her dog that she got turned around and started down the wrong side on the stairs. Again Gimme got big eyes, totally forgot what we were working on, but made a good decision, turned to me and demanded the payoff.
And even better - after these two episodes, she remained calm and went right back to working. There was a time not long ago when she would have spent the rest of class on high alert. This is evidence of really good progress since both dogs were within 5 feet and intruding on our space.
The thing we were working on was related to listening skills, again. Ursula had me pick six cues that Gimme knows well, that she could do in class and in a small space. I picked: kennel, chill, sit, down, touch, paw and melon. Touch is a nose touch to my hand and paw is shake hands. Chill is to down and put your head down, wherever she was. Melon is to push her cube with her nose.
Then Ursula strung them together in different logical sequences. The idea was to cue the first one and the instant Gimme did it cue the next, and the instant she did that cue the next, and so on to the end. The last behavior got clicked and treated. If she made a mistake, we broke it off and then tried it again, starting at the beginning. We did each sequence about five times (correctly) before moving on to the next.
The sequences we did were:
- chill-touch-down-melon-sit-paw
- kennel-chill-touch-down-melon-sit-paw
- sit-kennel-chill-melon-down-touch-paw
- paw-down-melon-kennel-chill-touch-sit
- down-touch-melon-sit-kennel-chill-paw
Even though it was hard mental work to focus like that and especially really listening part, Gimme seemed to enjoy it. I times I fully expected to see steam come out of her ears. This girl really loves a challenge.
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