Parkour (3/4)

Gimme did much better tonight.  Although slow to start, we were able engage her brain during the warm-up period at the start of class and overall she stayed focused.  I started to lose her toward the end of class when the next class was showing up and either watching from the doorway and/or walking their dogs in the training yard, which she could see.  Even then I was able to get her to work with me again.  Overall it was a substantial improvement from last week.

All started out well recording and then periodically the view screen would turn monochromatic purple and kinda blurry.  Later it went back to normal and then back and forth between purple and normal.  Quick scan of the recordings shows what I saw on screen was how it was recording, so I suspect the camera is dying - I've had it ten years and have really used it a lot for the last few years.  I'll tinker with it tonight and see if it can be resurrected, otherwise I'll be camera shopping tomorrow night.  I definitely want to have a camera for our tracking weekend with Sil Sanders.

Balance 1 video - As you can see, Gimme is easily distracted - again with the toys.  You might be inclined to ask why I gave her the first treat.  Really I was just priming the pump, so I picked a moment when she responded to her name.  Then she gets to work with me better, and better.  The turn I asked her for just after 1:00 was hard for her because she normally turns the other direction, but she also wanted to turn toward me, so it was a challenge.  Obviously we need to work on that so she can turn comfortably in both directions.

Balance 2 video - Just a bit more balance work.  I've never gotten Gimme to get used to the center sway thing.  Most moving stuff doesn't bother her, but this does.  She gets tense and then it really vibrates, so she tenses more and then it gets worse.  I think if I could have an hour alone and freeshape interaction, she could get comfortable with it. Perhaps some night when no one else shows up for class, I'll ask Jo to just let me play with it and see how it goes.

Balance 3 video - Here you can see what the camera was doing - I cut off the end of this recording because it was unreadable garbage.  Anyway, Gimme showed at the beginning she wasn't thinking about her feet.  So I slowed her down and just tried to get her thinking.  The part you miss is where I asked her to stop and sit on the inclined board.  It was hard for her, but she did it.

Then we put them all together.  Gimme was getting her head fully into what we were doing and its too bad you don't get to see it.  We did it twice.

Balance 6 video - More bad video, but readable.  Here Gimme does the sequence we just did, plus some added go-arounds and 4-on with obstacles near the path.  She is really paying attention and does very well.

Backing-on video - We spent some time backing-on things.  Gimme is really quite talented at this.  I love the way she looks for things with her back feet.  We worked on not sitting as she gets on.  And we ended with a stellar "bacon" sideways onto the narrow balance board.  Sadly you don't get to see any but the very first.

Then we were each tasked to pick 4 obstacles in the room and perform a flowing sequence of 6 behaviors.  Gimme did "walkies", "flip", "walkies", then "bacon" partway up the balance board, "hands", "table" and "pivot".  We did this without any warm-up and Gimme was able to focus and follow cues throughout.

Next we worked on some "pivot" on objects taller than she's accustomed to.  This is when I started losing her.  There was a short time when she was able to pull it together, but then it was gone again.  As good as she was doing, she just wasn't ready to introduce something so new.

Jumping-on video - I had to laugh at Gimme's response when I first cued her to "table" on the scaffold.  She really wasn't wrong - clever girl.  After her first solution, she condescended to do it my way.  The last time I actually got the cue out ahead of getting there, so she was able to jump more normally.

For our last exercise we did a bit more balance work.  I had Gimme slow down and do several turns and then left it at that, since she was doing it despite the strange dog in plain view.

Overall I was very happy with her efforts.  I think she is really starting to find her way out of this false pregnancy and I'm eager to have her back to normal.  I can't wait to see how she does tomorrow at RallyFrEe practice.  We probably won't have any video for it.  I'll definitely have a camera for the weekend or my name isn't Visa-Girl-Baker.  Just sayin'...