Concepts

I haven't talked a lot about class.  Its going really well.  Although Gimme usually needs a good 30 feet of threshold in other situations, she's pretty darn comfortable with 10 feet in class.  She is working really well and learning a lot. 

I'm also really proud of her taking the initiative to tell me when she has had enough.  We do "whazzat" to the other dogs as we are moving about or anytime one comes into view, and she's doing really well with that.  Thursday night we were doing "whazzat" whenever Neyla (a yellow Lab) walked by practicing heeling.  Gimme did really good and was working hard at it.  When dogs no longer need to look, they usually just do a nose tilt in the direction of the LAT thing, when they hear the cue. 

Gimme must've had enough and I missed the signs.  So when I gave her the cue again, instead of doing a nose tilt - she moved and turned her back to Neyla.  "Mom, I've had enough, now lets do something else."  So we did.  We worked on other behaviors and made substantial progress with her being able to sit still while Ursula touched her.  She'll hold a sit stay while a Chinook helicopter is doing a 100 foot hover nearby, while the wind from its rotor wash is buffeting her, but someone try to touch her and the excitement is more than she can stand.  I'd much rather work through that than something else related to stays. 

Later right as class was being released, Neyla and Gimme did down stays, about five feet apart, while the other dogs filed out.  Gimme broke once, but was fine after being reset.  So I was very pleased...

The reason for the title "Concepts" has to do with some going back to basics that I've been working on.  Because Ursula teaches targeting different than I'd learned it, we are going back to reteach targeting as two separate concepts - nose "touch" and "paw" targeting.  Sometimes when I send her to "touch" something on the floor, she does both "touch" and "paw" simultaneously.  My clever girl is covering all the bases doncha know; though she only uses her foot on "paw".  I've decided that I also want to teach her the concept of back "feet" touch.  We've been working on that for a couple of days.  Recently Gimme has also been learning to "bring" things to me that I point at (though sometimes I have to remind her to "pick [it] up" first). 

So tonight I did a training session and then decided to test her level of understanding.  I put a rubber furniture coaster on the floor and worked her through "touch", "paw", "feet" and "bring".  She did pretty good.  The back "feet" wasn't as good as the others, but its really a new concept.  And I did have to remind her to pick it up.  Still I'm really pleased that the different concepts are coming together.  Not that I'm surprised, since she is a canine genius...