Parkour (5/3)

No one else showed up, so we got one giant private lesson.  We were careful to give Gimme breaks, to not overdo it.

"Below" video - Gimme still makes assumptions about what I want.  Getting her to use her listening ears is a struggle we have never gotten past, it shows up at the beginning of EVERY training session, Every walk, Every everything. She likes doing what I ask, its just never her first inclination.

"Walkies" video - We did some balance work.  You'll see Gimme thought I might want her to jump down.  Later in class she jumps from the ground up and onto the balance board when I was trying to get her to do something else and she didn't understand. We work a lot in class on control, getting her to slow down and think and especially listen.  I left in a little segment of what Gimme does when she's bored by too much talking.  Of course, you'll see I rewarded her effort once, so it surely makes sense from her point of view. 

Sequences 1 video - Here we do several sequences, including a "flip" (180º turn on balance).  Gimme really likes just doing-doing-doing. 

Sequences 2 video - In this sequence, Gimme does "flip" on one balance board and then we repeat it a couple times on the other board.  The second board is narrower than the first.  Its still wider than the one we practice at home, but its also much higher, so this adds to the challenge.

Through & combos video - The thing about Parkour is, much of it is not about doing stuff which is physically challenging, but rather about doing stuff which is unfamiliar or with different conditions.  Its all about confidence building.  BTW all the panting you see is not stress, it really was quite warm during class.  In the second part, Gimme didn't think she could "below" if there was no sheet.  She has before, but it just looked different than what we'd done earlier. 

Sequences 3 video - I had to repeat the "pivot" cue until Gimme actually listened, even though we'd done it earlier in our warm up.  I find I still need to refresh her on things if too much time has passed.  I suspect this is a side-affect of the anti-seizure medication and just something we have to live with.

"Hands" on a Moving Object video - For much of this either I or Jo was steadying the hand truck or making it move.  Gimme seemed to really get into doing this.  Of course with her, anything which pays is worth doing and doing often.  One thing which is really key to Parkour philosophy is for the dog to have permission to say, "this is too much" or "I can't".  So when Gimme gets off, its no big deal.  She gets another chance.  We keep it all light and fun, with silly noises at times, so the dog knows this is all just a game

Sequences 4 video - The part we ran into trouble here was trying to get Gimme to do the through followed by going "below" the chair.  We struggled with getting her to keep her hiney low enough so it wasn't uncomfortable for her.  I tried placing treats as a lure under the chair and while she would stretch in to get them, she wasn't willing to go completely below the chair.  The end of this sequence was to "box" under the scaffold.  Gimme didn't understand what I wanted and jumped up on the scaffold instead.  Parkour is adamant about not letting dogs jump down from heights, so we took the table-steps route down and tried again. 

Crawl from Table video - When we switched the two tables so the lower one was under the scaffold, then Gimme was willing to go from there "below" the chair.  We did it a few times in the other direction.  She never would go from the higher table "below" the chair.  We took the chair away and then she did go from the higher table "below" the bar on the scaffold, but then wouldn't do it again.  So I concluded it was still uncomfortable.  There is no special reason to teach her this, other than teaching her another way to use her body.  She needs to keep her hiney low as she comes off the table, but couldn't figure it out herself.  I could probably teach her separate from this exercise, but don't know if I'll put the time into it.

Gimme did a LOT during this class, since she was the only one there.  She does love her Parkour.