Yippy, Yippeeee, YIPPEEEEE WOO HOOOOOO...
Gimme has the whole Loose Leash Walking thing in her repertoire!!! I have been avoiding (and terribly missing) walking around the lake with Mary and Grafton because I didn't want to set back our training. Grafton is always trying to get her to play and she has to yell at him to stop being a boy AND she has always had a burning need to walk in front of him... so much so that even at her best moments she couldn't do LLW.
Tonight I broke down and did it and she did GREAT!!! I was really very proud of her... she only needed a tiny bit more reminders than without Grafton. Honestly that may have been because its been nine days since we last walked the lake for LLW training. I really couldn't walk and talk and count, so the 300 Pecks wasn't happening consistently. However, when I did count, we were right at the same distances as we were last time. Mostly I just clicked/treated on a random schedule, with reminders as needed.
Of course, it probably helps a LOT that we walked 7.5 miles yesterday. I didn't plan to walk that far, but just kept going "a little farther". Then I got around the back side and when I wasn't sure where the road was to get back down to the car, I walked the long way... which was at least a mile more than needed to do that circuit.
It also may have helped that we met Mary and Grafton early this afternoon for a nosework practice. Grafton was just not into searching at all. Gimme did a great job, though it proved to be challenging for her. Since both dogs were having difficulty - I went back with a hair of mine and checked the breeze next to the hides and it was really flat or blowing back into the rock wall. Turns out Mary had already done a bunch of nosework practice with Grafton earlier today, so that accounts for his lack of interest. We have plans to meet with Susan and Tucker tomorrow, so we'll see if Grafton is back up to his usual interest level.
Yesterday when we were walking on the fort's training area, my shoes kept coming untied and so I had to stop three times to re-tie them. The first two times Gimme came up and mugged me while I was bent over, so I leaned toward her until she stopped (in keeping with what we'd done in class). Then when I was done with the shoes, I encouraged her to stand against the front of my legs and gave her some petting. The third time I stopped, she just came up and waited until I was ready and then got her petting. So I think I'm going to do it that way - Denise Fenzi has a name for it, but I can't remember what it is. She uses it as part of her routine before entering the obedience ring.
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