Frustrating Friday - New Lesson Learned

I expected that Gimme would be fussier on the drive today.  So, I made it a point to play with her some before we left, but oh good Lord, it took 2:10 to drive 2.5 miles!!!  By the time I tumbled to just how long it had been, we were already past the halfway mark and I was getting lower on gas.  I thought that at least once we got to the park and walked, I'd be able to drive home without a lot of stops.

The weird thing about tonight was that she was much fussier than she has been all week.  And there were a few short tantrums during the stopping breaks, before she would settle down.  We haven't had that during the drive -- only at the end when she was insisting that it was time for Gimme to get out and play RIGHT NOW.  Once we got there, she fussed for about 20 minutes and then finally settled down a bit.  Then I had to do the reach, pull away, reach, pull away drill for a bit before she remembered that the way we get out of the crate is to sit and that pawing at the door and whining are not part of the sit behavior, even if she is so multi-talented that she can do all three at once.

When I got her out, she just couldn't focus well enough to walk decently, even though she was wearing the EasyWalk harness.  I finally got so fed up with having my arms jerked out of the sockets that I sat down on a bench and tied the leash to it.  Then just clicked her for any sign of attention, any check-ins, any default sit, etc.  That helped some.  I got her in my lap and tried doing some Ttouch to settle her, but it didn't help.

Weirdly there were very few people in the park at that hour and she was even more distracted than usual.  I don't know if that was because she was still keyed up from the drive.  Or possibly because there was so much less going on, it was easier to focus on really minute things that she'd never noticed before. 

Since we weren't making any real progress, I decided we might as well head home, cuz if it was going to take two hours... it would already be past midnight before we got home. 

Walking back to the car she was still flinging off in all directions.  So I started doing what I do in the arena, only this time on leash.  If she went left, I went right.  If she went forward, I went back... whatever she did, I did the opposite.  I have to admit it felt sort of Koehler-ish.  Probably because I was frustrated by this time (and I always found training that way frustrating), though Koehler was always trying to set them up for a big leash correction.  Since Gimme was in a harness she wasn't getting any corrections. 

In no time at all, I had a super attentive dog on the other end of my leash.  She was into this and thinking it had GAME POSSIBILITIES.  Not being one to disappoint her, I turned it into a game.  I was dashing all around, changing directions and constantly making it more challenging to her.  When she'd catch me, she got clicked and treated.  I changed directions a LOT, but still generally heading toward where we'd parked. 

It was fun for both of us and has given me pause for considering things...  but, I am sooooo going to pay for that tomorrow with sore achy knees.  So the drive home was absolutely silent.  Gimme went from crazy dog on the drive down to the contented puppy on the way home.  She is dozing right now, contented.

So I've rechecked my blog (which doubles as my training log) and I see that when the whining went from annoying to much worse was after our classes with Ursula stopped.  It increased again after started doing the distraction training at the beginning of the month and then when we stopped training the fruit project 2 weeks ago to try to spend some time on tightening up her responses to sit and down cues.  Each of the noticeable differences seems to coincide with changes in our schedule that resulted in less training and/or less mental challenge.  And now that we've been working on the whining, she is getting even less training, but the sharp uptick tonight seems late - unless you consider that the extra exercise in the form of walking around Capitol Lake and on the boardwalk may have bled off some of the mounting frustration. 

Perhaps I'm wrong, but its certainly something to explore.  Gimme has always loved to train and I've often thought she needs the mental exercise.  I think she is the kind of dog that has to have a job.  We learned during classes with Ursula that Gimme doesn't do well when stuff is too easy cuz she gets bored.  When its hard to puzzle through and do, that is when she thrives.  So it may be that while I've been focusing on stuff she knows, trying to tighten up her responses, that I've unintentionally been boring her during the training that we have been doing. 

Anyway, that's kinda where my mind is right now.  So will play with that over the next few days and see what we get.  On the fruit training, I'll work on the three behaviors that aren't on cue yet.  And with the sits and downs, I think I can make them more interesting for her if I throw them in with a bunch of heeling games.