"below" training video - We'd done one other session, so I started with a plastic chair, but I couldn't make it work. As I'd try to get my hand in position, she moved around so fast the leash got caught on the chair. I got a few good repetitions, but far more failed reps. I thought it would go better since we had the head-under-chair training so long ago and I expected it to translate. Then I tried a different (heavier) chair and it worked better, but still not a good enough success rate. Then Jo brought us two large cones with holes in them, to make a jump or "below" pole. In hindsight, because the pole was so short in depth and greater width compared to the chairs, it was much easier to get a treat (lure) into position before Gimme could move around it. We were able to get several good reps quickly. Note what a large space Jo had cordoned off for us.
Crawl training video - The next task was to do the crawl trainer. Its a large PVC framework, with holes in the side legs to put the drape support poles in. It started out with the drape so high all Gimme had to do was run the channel to me. By the end of several different turns she was crawling the length of it. Because there was a few seconds in time when there was no hand on the leash and since she could have zipped out the side, I rewarded this with peanut butter so she was extra motivated to come directly to me. It didn't take anything for her to figure out how to win at this game. Jo said she thought Gimme would still go through it on the lowest setting, but there was no reason to ask her, since it was way beyond what would ever be required. Note the tail never stops wagging.
Hoop training video - Then Jo brought out another gizmo to teach the dogs to go down a set of hoola hoops, set as a zig-zag. The other dogs had real difficulty figuring out how to do this, but Gimme didn't. I lured her through once and the next time she did it perfectly on her own. Needless to say (but I will) everyone was suitably impressed with how quickly Gimme figured this out. We followed this with a little session on jump training. I used the same cones/bar set-up and lured Gimme over a couple of times. Then our goal was to sequence two behaviors together, so I decided "below" a chair and "over" a jump. I started by building value for being under the chair and then lured her through. Gimme got this pretty quickly. Short sequence video We also did a three part sequence by adding another chair on the end for "table", but I didn't get it on video.
Overall I thought Gimme did well. There's a somewhat frantic quality at times as she would be in a bit of a food frenzy, but we worked through it. She was certainly tired and slept soundly most of the way home.
Tonight we did another session on "below", shaping her to go under the grooming table. She picked this up really quickly. Where we ran into difficulty was when I tried to add a little distance between me and the table (like 1'). Sometimes Gimme did it, but mostly she didn't. I finally figured out the problem was the hand and body signals I was giving her. In agility we use our hand and body signals in a pretty specific way and I wasn't doing it like what she was accustomed to. Even though we haven't done agility in a very long time, she still expected me to signal her using the Gimme-approved method and when I didn't, she couldn't make sense of it. When I cleaned it up then she was almost 100%.
She always keeps me on my toes. Just sayin...
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