RFE Practice (57)

We have entered the World Wide competition at intermediate level, so I'm concentrating on coursework and intermediate behaviors (and the elusive paw lift from novice).

"Pivot" video - We started with a quick warm-up on her brick, just to get her mind into working. There was a lot of distraction in the background, so I wanted to take advantage of this favorite well-known behavior.

1st run through video - The first station is a free choice and I want to do Gimme's "scoot". She was doing it at our last practice, but this time I have to really work with her to get it. Of course she offers a "grape" (roll over). I love her "grape", but once I pay for it, it gets thrown at me anywhere. She loves men/boys, so I lose her to a crowd in the middle of resolving this. When she did it, I should have thrown the treat to her in place. Next was backing in "heel" - we're seeing a little improvement there. Right 270 goes as well as one could expect with her very loose heeling. Gimme was losing focus and starting to forge when I gave her the "spin" cue, so it was more of an oval turn. The next exercise is a backwards-thru-3x. It's a weird exercise, which has never looked good to me no matter who is doing it. We hadn't practiced it in awhile, so it wasn't smooth at first. The simultaneous 180 was loose and was supposed to be a dog-inside-180-pivot. For the next free choice, Gimme knew she was going to get on the stool - she just forgot to wait for me to tell her to do so. I'll bring in my own more-stable prop next time, so it doesn't move as she is trying to "bacon" onto it. Her free choice "pivot" was nice. At the next turn I actually cued her to go "thru" when it was left-turn-circle-trx; the cue should have been "around". The next station was a thru-trx to the other side, which she did very nicely. The thru-trx at the next corner proved very challenging because of all the distracting stuff in the corner. Using "grape" for the next free choice was not a good idea and would bite me later. Gimme had been doing "izzy" so well and lately it's been deteriorating. I think I tried to do it in too many strange places before she was really ready for it. She did do it beautifully with a little refresher. Next was a simultaneous 180. She did a lovely "take-a" bow. I must, Must, MUST remember to continue past the last sign... it's points off if I forget on a video submission. When I did try the dog-inside-180-pivot I still did it wrong. We need to practice it on the brick. Gimme is likely to pivot around me instead of holding her front feet in place because of how I taught it to her first.

2nd run through video - Because Gimme's heeling was so loose during the first run through, I wanted to do another run, leaving out most of the behaviors and focusing on the heeling. Gimme's heeling is really nice when she can just move and go. It's the stopping and starting which throws her off - it's not fun for her. Here when I left out the behaviors and just did the turns and side changes, she did well and seemed to enjoy it. I broke out of the moving heeling stuff to deal with the distraction in the far corner, where she misses the "thru". It took several tries to get her focused and working well through it.

"Scoot" training video - My preference is for her to "scoot" away from me directly in front and in this session she was angling strongly to the right. I chose to reward it anyway, since she was moving a nice distance with a prompt response.

3rd run through video - I again walked the course focusing on heeling. This time I added stops at each station and clicked/treated each stop and sometimes when we were moving. It went well and she stayed attentive throughout.

4th run through video - Here I added behaviors back into the course. Gimme did better on her "scoot". Backing in heel was still weak. It's been a challenge for us, so unless it's magically perfect on entry video day, we'll add a foot target for her to back to for the first run throughs and then take it out for the final one. The 270 turn was better. She still forged at the beginning of the spin - I may have to rethink my position on the fancy footwork for heeling. I've never needed it before, but I've never had a go-go-go dog before. At the very least I have to use "halt" to let her know we're stopping. Since we won't be doing standard obedience we haven't done much with change of pace, maybe I should. The backward-thru-3x went well. I really have to work on the right-180-pivot. Her free-choice behaviors were okay, but need polish. Her circle on the circle-trx was too wide. We again had distraction in the corner. the free choice paw-to-knee went well. This time only 2 tries for the "izzy". The last two stations were good. Overall better than the first run through, but still needs a lot of work.

Distracting corner video - During the set up getting there, I see she was also distracted at the corner before, but I didn't work it. It takes a few tries to get her focus, but then she does it flawlessly twice.

Sidepass into dog video - Gimme does this better moving left than right. Also I can just shuffle my feet moving left, whereas I have to step across moving right. I'm also shifting my shoulder forward to make sure I'm not giving her any back-behind-me body cue. The shoulder cue is really subtle, but Gimme always notices it. Once she is more consistent in both directions, then I'll add the cue "move". I think once the verbal cue is on the behavior, then it will progress even more. It was going well until I stepped on her foot. There was one brilliant moment where I had her go into "side" using "behind" and I was sidestepping when she got there and she really did nice sidepass beside me - sadly, J'Anna forgot to keep the camera on us. A really nice one was when I started with my feet apart and as I closed my feet together (toward her) Gimme started the sidepass. I didn't notice it at the time, but see it on video. I want to try it again, as I could easily stop at a sidepass station with my feet separated.

Paw lift video - I thought "high" (right paw lift) was on more of a verbal than it seemed to be here. Once I got her started from in front it went well. I think starting in front and then gradually pivoting into "side" works well. For a long time I was going to use the cues "high" and "five", but decided they were too similar. Then went to "high" and "fiverrrr", but the words' beginnings are still too similar and I forget the "rrr" too often. So now I've decided to make it "high" and "low". There's an issue with her bringing up the right paw at the same time and a bit lower than the left paw, so need to work that out. I should jackpot when she keeps the right paw planted while the left comes up.

5th run through video - She forgot how to heel since the last run through. I tried something a little different on "scoot", but it didn't seem to help. She's still doing the fishtail backing in heel.  I wish I had someone with good timing to click it when she steps straight. We'll get through the entry video by using a foot target. The spin was nicer when I cued a "halt" first. Her backward-thru-3x was nice this time. I just have to put time into the dog-inside-pivot using the brick - we started on it once and it was going nicely. Some things were okay, but most were not as good as the 4th run through. Honestly her brain was just used up.

Next practice I plan to do a heeling walk through to tune up her heeling. Then I'll work the individual behaviors separate from the course. Then work the corners separately before I put it all together. We've got to start using her "bowl" too, to get the food off me for the entry video day.