RFE practice (41)

I was trying something a little different. I brought Gimme's matt to use for a reset when she starts offering me behaviors when I don't want offering. It didn't work for what I intended, but did have other benefits. One of the drawbacks is the inability to use my timer to tell me when I should be getting ready to end the session, since there's no way to accurately determine in advance how many 1 minute matt resets we might do. Thus the sessions are longer than I want, even factoring out the time on the matt.

Session 1 video - We started out working out the distraction issue with the stuffed toys J'Anna had set up for the prop weave. Once Gimme realized we were playing the distraction game, then she did really nicely. We did this on both sides. Gimme's heeling was pretty loose, but I was willing to accept it as long as she was ignoring the toys. Then we did "pivot" on J'Anna's prop. After I took her leash off, we tinkered with side-stepping. I think Gimme will be better at this when she understands it. She's better stepping to her right, which is her best direction on most things. Going to her left went much better when I waited until she shifted in that direction and then moved with her, otherwise she kept trying to "Otto". Tossed a few treats to let her loosen up and move out. Then did treat tossing to set her up for "thru-heel" and "thru-side". I don't reward any instance where she does a backspin behind me before coming up into the correct position. I thought we had this sorted out, but perhaps its asking too much of her to hear and respond to a compound cue when she's already moving. She seemed to do better when she was close to me and/or not moving when she heard the cue. I have some other ideas to work on this. We started to work on "take-a" bow alignment. I first gave her treats for standing balanced and then lured "take-a". The first one was really nice, but then she started offering, assuming she knew what to do next (listening not required). We did matt reset. Then moved back to where we'd done it before (where I could see her whole body in the only mirror). She pattern trains so easily, so as soon as we got close, she starts offering "take-a", so fast I can't get in any rewards for waiting for the cue. After another reset, we did more heeling around the props and I sprung in another lured "take-a". We ended with a bit of "thru-heel" and "thru-side" with mixed success. Editing out the resets and accounting for walking to/from the matt, this was a 10½-minute session - too long.

Session 2 video - We started with a bit of rewarding stillness in "side" position. Then we worked some more on side stepping. From there we did some right "side" heeling around the stuffed toys. When we get to the end of the line and she stares off in the distance, its because one of the doggie daycare stopped there and spoke to me, with large black dog in tow (we talked about this later). I was proud of Gimme for how she handled this. When I stared behind me, it was because I heard a noise like the door opening. We latch it so it shouldn't happen, but I'm only mortal and could forget. We practiced a simultaneous counter-circle and you can see Gimme was still distracted because she didn't even know "behind". There were new dogs in the day care, so more noise than usual. Gimme asks me to go to her matt. Good girl. We tried to do the course, but Gimme was still too distracted by the day care noises, so we played "whazzat" for a bit. It took a couple tries to get through the first station. The second station was a free choice, so I cued her for "kisses", which I figured she would need/want to do anyway. Later I get her to an "Otto" (back around me) for a free choice and then when I want her to back up beside me at the next station, she's just sure we should do "Otto" again. After we finish the course we do matt time again. From there we practice backing up in heel position. 

Session 3 video - I decided to focus on lots of fast heeling for this last session. After the initial 30 seconds getting her full attention, we did 3½ minutes of non-stop heeling, mostly on the right "side", with treats as we went. As we finished, Gimme jumped on me for kisses/reassurance. I was glad I had the matt there, since she went over to it to tell me she needed a break. I don't think the communication would have been as clear to me without the matt. After the break we did "heel" for 1½ minutes. From there I put some rewards into the being still at "heel" account. I slipped in a lured "take-a" when she wasn't expecting it and it was lovely. Then I did the same thing on the right "side", with another quick lured "take-a". This was the shortest of the three sessions, at 8½ minutes.