A Day in the Life

Our day has been quite busy from start to end.  I knew we would end up spending a sizable chunk of the day driving, so wanted to make sure we got a long walk in beforehand.  Gimme has a favorite stick that sits beside the pipeline road that we walk on.  She usually picks it up on the way out and carries it for awhile.  Then on the way back she picks it up and carries it back to where it started.  Here's a short combined clip of Gimme with her favorite stick on the whole planet...

She didn't carry it nearly as far as usual today, but it was very hot and I'm sure that made a difference since stick carrying interferes with breathing, doncha know.  Still she did pick it up again on the way back and return it to its customary starting point.  Don't know why she does that silly routine, but she does.  I think I've mentioned before that she has her own ideas of the right and wrong of things... and this business with her stick would seem to fall in there somewhere.

After our walk we hopped in the car, went to fill the tank and then started out on a two hour drive to Vancouver.  Don't think I mentioned it before, but I noticed almost two weeks ago that she was gitchy in the back - letting me know she didn't want to be touched in a certain spot.  I made sure to get her to see Doctor Dennis for her first bodywork visit before the agility seminar.  Today was our follow up visit. 

Today doc had much less to fix and Gimme was clearly feeling better since she was a lot less willing to stand still for the exam and treatment.  Fortunately her peanut butter tube works wonders.  Doc pronounced her fit to do anything we want - just to watch her and bring her back if anything crops up, and of course to consider regular checkups.

Then it was back in the car for the two hour drive home.  We had a short break at home before heading out the door for class. 

Gimme did well in class and I was pleased with all her efforts.  We revisited the issue of someone touching her during a stay and she did very well with it.   Remember when we first attempted this, we didn't realize she was about to whelp a large baby lamb toy, so didn't know she was going all hormonal... we've waited to make sure she was past that before returning to "the hardest thing" training.   

To make it even harder, it was Ursula's new co-instructor, who is someone Gimme has only met once or twice and this is the first time she has interacted with her.  So I wasn't really expecting her to do this well.  It only took a little bit for her to get the idea.  She figured it out beautifully and did a stellar job.  Of course, that was very hard work for her, so she had a peanut butter bone to refresh herself, followed by chewing on her rawhide. 

Then, while the other students were shaping their dogs to go to matt, Gimme and I played with a box.  It was a funny large box, shaped kinda like a Kleenex box with a cut-out that crossed the top and front edge.  Our first task was going to be to have her put her head in it, but of course she did that the instant we set it down.  So instead I shaped her to back up to it and put a back foot in the hole.  It took all of fifteen click/treats for us to get to that point.  Too bad I don't have THAT on video - it was very cute.

Then of course when the co-instructor Robin came around Gimme didn't want to do that any more.  I couldn't convince her that Gimme already knew how to do it and was bored with that task and wanted to show me other ideas she had.  I would have liked to have gotten feedback from her and/or ideas of how to help Gimme stick with something and perfect it.  But since she didn't really know Gimme's capabilities, or mine for that matter, she was convinced that Gimme hadn't done it and didn't know it.  If Ursula had been working our side of the room I think I would have gotten more helpful instruction on this point.  So, will make it a point to ask her tomorrow night.

It was a very long and busy day and Miss Gimme is sleeping soundly.  I have to wake her in a minute and run her outside before we head off to bed.