Given how distracted she was in Parkour class the night before, I wasn't expecting much, but she did better than I thought she would. I think it made a big difference for her to have the place to herself and not have to wonder about other dogs, like in Parkour class. Luckily the doggie daycare was amazingly quiet. I never did get a battery for the waist timer, so I just had to go by the clock on the wall. I tried really hard to keep these sessions shorter. The first session was shorter, the second - not so much.
Session 1 video - I mostly planned to just do things she knew. I tried to keep things moving along for her and I relaxed on precision a bit. She was a little distracted, so I focused on catching those times when she turned her attention back to me. She was happy to do her up-touches. I realized I hadn't closed the divider between the practice area and the rest of the building, so I left Gimme on a stay while I took care of it. Also had to help J'Anna adjust the tripod (the blue screen). There were a few spots where I had to help Gimme re-connect, but over all it went well. While she was doing well, we switched to game mode - finding "heel", "side" and "center". She loves action and I just have to remember to make sure she gets more rewards for finding and being in position than for running out to "get it". Her listening skills took a hit, but she remained enthusiastic to play the game - ya gotta love her running to me.
Session 2 video - We got one distance "spin"... a whole three feet. She was a little distracted, but did get better focused once I moved out more. For our practicing of the 180º turns, I brought out the raw steak. While Gimme isn't too worried about me eating her cheese when she does a poor turn, she was really concerned about me eating her steak. After the second turn, which was weak, I faked eating her steak. The next turn was much tighter. She does have her priorities, eh. After a few good reps, we switched to finding position game. I don't know why she offered "back" when I was asking for "side", other than we have been training it lately and I think the position I was in was where we'd done it in the first session. I did follow up a couple minutes later with some backing up. She's decided she likes it, though I do need to get rid of the barking, (which I unintentionally rewarded when I was in a hurry to get video for her novice Parkour title submission). Her center-front-pivot is still stronger counter-clockwise than clockwise. We got more raw steak to work her 180º turns in "side" position. Right around 10:30 is where she starts loosing focus. I played around with it until we got some nice successes, then quit. If I kept better track of time, we could have avoided it altogether.
Session 3 video - Gimme was a little reluctant to leave Rockette in the van, so I wanted to keep this session short and easy. I figured we couldn't get much easier than me practicing my treat-spitting and Gimme certainly enjoyed it. Around 2:30 there was a puppy-squeal from doggie daycare and this proved to be a big distraction. It didn't repeat, but it was just hard for Gimme to get past it. I tried to get her back and had her for a little bit with treat-spitting practice to center. I thought the fun history for finding position would be enough, but even this required a bit of help to keep her in it. When I got some good effort from her I quit. After watching the video, I let this go on too long. She wasn't panicked like the other night at nosework class, but she was concerned, so I don't think it was good training.
We were supposed to meet Nadine for tracking this morning, but I overslept. When she called me I could have gotten there before she left, but it was already getting really warm. It got up to 95º today, so it was probably just as well. We plan to meet there next Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment