Gimme was repeatedly distracted, which has often been an issue on our first turns... She was distracted before we started by the people on the sideline (10 seconds edited out)... by equipment on the edge of the ring (which she's seen a million times)... by taking a tunnel instead of watching my cue (could have been clearer cue, but wasn't totally bad - I was still on the take-off side of the jump)... by treats someone before us dropped (no she really wasn't looking for rats, silly Chris made the rat comment)... Third try for the turn was not a charm, but she did get it and I chose to go on to get her moving and in the game. We had a nice sequence afterward, until the turn before/into the weaves.
I find showing her the cookies often helps. I know its "bad" training and Blynn disagrees with it, but overall she lets me do what I need to for training. When Gimme knows what she's working for it helps her focus - its like it cuts through the fog of distractions. We do it a lot less now than we did in the beginning. She really nailed the turn and weave entry then. And the next 3 obstacles was good, my movement pushed too much and she went around the 3rd jump. When I did it right, so did she.
She did well after a reset and made it through to the send to the backside... I was too late to handle it and this is well before the recent workshop where we really started actually learning those advanced sends. Of course, after a mistake, she often follows with "being distracted". I read it as her not liking to be wrong and needing a mental break. She came back strong and did a really nice sequence until the fly-off on the up-side of the aframe. In her defense, my angle was bad and pulled her off. We have not trained a diverging angle, so because of my line of motion, she may have thought she was wrong to go on the aframe.
Of course, then she was distracted by the doggie behind the glass doors. Those doors lead to the foyer I've mentioned so often. The team to follow us is in there warming up brain cells and awaiting their turn. After the second time distracting toward the doors, you'll see me doing the multiple-alternating-palm touches. Gimme likes that and sometimes it works well to focus her - though it didn't this time. When she did come, I went on with the course to get her moving again.
On our second run through it went better. You'll see I started with the multiple-alternating-palm touches. It started well and then I sent her off course. Third try was much better. I love Blynn as an instructor. She's very patient, always positive and works with what we have in the moment. And she ALWAYS lets me know when its my fault - which often isn't immediately clear to me in the moment (though its always brutally clear on the video, eh).
First try 4:30, start to finish... second successful try 1:55... quite an improvement. I wish I could post our run from this week right after this one. The difference is dramatic. You'll get to see it soon enough.
One thing which always impresses me was how long Gimme will work. The original video was nearly 9 minutes... Yes she was distracted and taking side trips here and there, but she never actually quit on me. She is very resilient and really wants to work.
I changed two things this week. First, I made it a point to arrive sooner so she gets a walk when we first get there. Second, when our turn is approaching, I now got her out of the car one dog sooner than I was. This gives me plenty of time to potty walk her and still get a full six minutes in the foyer to get her in her working brain. I don't know why I didn't think to do those things before, to make better use of our time... but it really made a big difference this week.
We are off to a nosework element trial. Hoping to come home with a Level 1 Interior element title. Cross your fingers for us...
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