RFE practice (55)

"Pivot" video - My goal here is to turn this into a distance behavior for advanced level sign #57. It says they only have to be 4 feet away and are supposed to back into position, so I'm waiting on answers to other questions to see if this will work. Gimme was tending to come off the brick as she did her "pivot", so I started treating her in position, which helped. I see I was also working on behavior repeats in this same session - bad training. Never work on more than one part of the behavior at a time.

Backward weaves video - I've been discussing online with other freestylers how best to teach this. Much of the first part of this video was based on what others said they did, which didn't work for us. I've given you samples of those. Gimme usually works really well with luring and will swing her butt easily, but this time I just couldn't get it to work. Then we tried using the guides, but I didn't get them working either. I've since thought of how I might use them with the method I ended with. The good news is the way the guides guided ME to working this in a different way - based on back-chaining - which I think will work better for us. I want to make some changes:
1.  set up the guide to create a channel helping her to not get out of position.
2.  use "touch" instead of "thru". I already see the "thru" weakening, whereas
     "touch" is a hand touch no matter where it is, so I wouldn't be interrupting
     a known behavior.
3.  start with a much smaller increment of the final behavior.

"Mark" video - Gimme starts this offering a bunch of behaviors. She had a chiropractor appointment scheduled later and we found her atlas was a little stuck, which influences her ability to think/work. I do think this behavior in another excellent opportunity to use back-chaining.

Sidepass into dog video - Two weeks ago when I was first using the knee cue, it seemed to work naturally, but not this time. I looked at the prior video and I don't see what I'm doing different, so I'll try it some more. Of course using my hand as a visual target worked well and will also work as a more natural physical cue.

Backing in heel video - I'm always surprised this isn't any farther along than it is. Gimme just has this tendency to take a couple steps and then swing her heiney out. At least now she was swinging it back in when I used luring with treat delivery. I think I need to spend a lot more time practicing this with guides, to build muscle memory. I could also use the space between the van and the wall in the carport, it's the perfect size channel.

"Fanny" video - Gimme has to go to the position behind me on cue and then follow me in position for four steps. My idea is to start with both hands behind me at parade rest position and then gradually move them up to be on my hips at my waist. I want to try this using two sets of guides to form a channel, so I can be sure she's where I want instead of having her slide out to the sides, then pop into position when a treat is coming. I was pleased to see in the third clip she's getting the idea. She'll try to turn anything into "otto" or "izzy", just sayin'.

Finding positions and "thru" video - This is just a bit of treat tossing, followed by giving position cues, so Gimme has to find them. It was during this last session she started shaking her head and sometimes moving with her head tilted. Usually this happens when she does a lot of barking (like in barn hunt), so it was weird seeing it here.

"Izzy" & "otto" video - Her "otto" is very solid - it's her better turning direction. Sometimes "izzy" is pretty wide until she gets warmed up. As much time as we spent learning these, then one day "boom" and she had them both. I've been having her do them other places so they remain strong behaviors.

Gimme wasn't as focused as I know she can be and she wasn't as confident either. She'd experienced some pains two days before and so I'd scheduled her for the chiropractor. Turns out her atlas was a little stuck, affecting her ability to think/work. We think it may have been stuck a lot more when she was having pains. Doc said the head shaking and tilting might be related to the atlas issue, since it can cause ringing in the ears. Her doc says dogs and horses often fix their own subluxations when they roll around on their back, which Gimme does often. Of course she still needs to see Dr. Powell for fine tuning.