RFE Practice (32)

These videos are from two weeks ago.  I figured I needed to get them posted before I post the videos from today.  ☺

My whole goal for the session was to come up with a plan for 25 seconds of video for the dog's of freestyle workshop with MDSA.  You'd think 25 seconds wouldn't be hard, right?  Wrong!  And its really only 20 seconds with the pauses at the beginning and the end.  I had to make a couple of changes to my plan to get in something good to look at and still end up where I wanted to be. 

My changes:
♥    took out an "around" on the first leg,
♥    changed the turn from a 270° back-around, to a simple "around" to center
♥    took out one pass through on the second leg
♥    changed the end position from an up-kisses to a sit with a paw on my knee

Session 1A video - I started with some focus work.  BTW I am trying to break Gimme's habit of being the bouncing-babe when it comes to treats, but first I have to break my habit of responding to it.  Its been a challenge to become mindful of it, but I'm making progress at home and on walks.  I do think I did better at it during today's sessions, but I also see times I rewarded her bouncing and mugging my hand.  After a little bit of heeling, I start practicing the around-to-center move, which was smooth and took a lot less time than the 270° back-around.  While this turn-transition worked well here, it works even better later when I speed up my heeling and the momentum carries Gimme around and into position.  My goal was to work on each of the pieces and then put them together.  Of course, a big part of what needed to be worked through was keeping my third foot from tripping up the other two - I have no clue how Gimme manages her four feet.  Our first run-through was 45 seconds.  As I muddle through this, if you feel inclined to comment, do so gently.  I've never been described as graceful - just sayin...  While I was learning what number of steps to take and how to cue it in my head, as well as how to present it to Gimme, she was learning what I wanted and what paid.  For example, I put a lot of treats into the paw-on-knee bank account.  She learns fast so this became a very valuable behavior in short order.  Part of figuring this out was me learning when to give cues so Gimme could do the behavior with more flow.  Plus I had to learn Gimme did the paw-on-knee faster and could hold it better if I cued a sit first.

Session 1B video - After a bit of a break to discuss camera and other stuff, we did another very short session.  Our first run through here was 40 seconds, still need to trim.  We did a couple runs, trying to sort out the footwork, but it wasn't getting smoother.  So I put Gimme up and we did a couple with just me.

While J'Anna was working her dog, I played with the camera viewfinder to determine the best position/angle for the camera.  I also moved the cones farther down the room.  My goal was to have a single position so its consistent with others who might have to video with their camera on a static tripod.

Session 2 video - During the session without Gimme I decided to drop one "thru", just doing the two on the side which put Gimme toward the camera.  Even with that change it was still taking far too long.  Part of the issue was how I saunter along.  Kathy will no doubt love my discovery of how much better it went when I move out like I'm going somewhere.  Part of this session was teaching Gimme the body cue for paw-on-knee is just the bending of the near leg after a stop.  We worked this a few times with the better timing.  

Session 3 video - To begin this session I worked more on the body cue for paw-on-knee.  Gimme is so smart, so anything which gets her treats is quickly learned.  By the time we are done with this session, Gimme is raising her paw as she is sitting.  If you watch her as we are doing the sequences, when she knows its coming she's trying to raise her paw up while we are still moving.  Anything to get to the treat faster, doncha know.  Since we'd already worked for 21 minutes before we even started this session, I tossed treats between sequence runs to bleed off any pressure. 

MDSA 5 takes video - These are the final five best takes.  I knew right away the best takes were 2, 4 and 5.  Later I watched very critically and decided 4 was the best one for both Gimme and me.  Can you tell why? 

I'm looking forward to seeing the final product when all 15 teams are combined and will post the link when its available.