Rear Crosses

I have to admit, we've been taking agility classes for two years and until now, I haven't trained a rear cross.  Seriously!

In class the other night, I promised Blynn, and told the whole class, that I was making it my mission to teach this girl a rear cross.  I haven't intentionally put it off... just had a mindset that I needed a jump set up to teach it.  Then the other night it occurred to me that I could start using my upright-hoop in place of a jump.

Also, I was probably subconsciously avoiding it because I've had trouble teaching Gimme to spin away from me.  I think I've put so much effort into teaching attention, that it works against me on these skills, because Gimme doesn't have a history of getting rewarded for turning away from me.

Tonight she was pestering me for something to do, so I cleared the floor and got down to business.  First I taught her that following the near hand and turning away (90 degrees) will get her a click and a treat from the other hand.  That took maybe ten treats to do both sides.

Then I set up the hoop and taught her the cue to go through it, cleverly named "hoop".  She remains convinced that I should click/treat every time she goes through: whether I cue or not, whether she goes through forwards or backwards, and that stepping into the hoop and turning in place to come back out should net two treats.  I'm sure she thinks I'm not paying sufficient attention to her efforts.  That little refinement (stimulus control) is a matter for another time.  I probably won't do anything about it for awhile because I do have another trick in mind that involves her backing through the hoop.

So then I used "hoop" to send her through and tried to randomly change whether I went straight or rear-crossed to the left.  At first I clicked her for ending up at my side whether she initially turned the right or the wrong way.  Then I stopped clicking the turns in the wrong direction and she figured that out very quickly.  After that we did the other side, straight or rear-cross right, which went even faster.

At this point she is tending to move with her nose up and waggling back and forth, trying to see which way I am going.  That's not the final picture I want.  She needs to pick up whether I am rear-crossing or going straight based on whether I am moving laterally into her lane or moving straight ahead.  I think she'll pick up that connection when we work outside using jumps and go at normal speed.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm enough - so perhaps we'll do just that.