On January 11th Gimme was still deep in her false pregnancy, so we didn't do very many things, tried to keep everything upbeat and sessions shorter. We started with some heeling warm up and it did help a bit with getting her focused and in a working mindset. However, there were people training Papillons in the next ring and it was very distracting for her.
My main goal was to do a video for the MDSA workshop this month. Ray Underwood is our presenter and he is trying to teach us a fancy weave. Naturally it's the backward weave which we've had so much trouble with. I think I was just expecting far too much because Gimme is normally so good at anything backing up. Not sure why this is challenging for her, but it is.
MDSA Workshop video - This video has three different segments. First part - is doing single "thru" while using Ray's footwork. This was easy for Gimme, though more challenging for me. Second part - is practicing the back through. I want to try this again and lure Gimme into position, so she doesn't experience the unease from me stepping over her. I have a cue for her to get between my legs, "under", but I don't want to risk creating an unintended behavior chain of come "under" then immediately back out. Third part - is putting 2 or 3 individual "thru's together. Gimme knows this, but by using Ray's footwork, the space to go through is a bit smaller, so she missed it a couple times.
Paw lifts video - My goal was to get more paw lifts without the second paw coming off the ground. This is harder for her with "low" (left paw) than it is for "high", I think because one shoulder isn't as flexible. You can see how distracted she was by the Papillons, we were a bit too close to them. She did better when she turned her back to them. I was also giving her some treats for waiting for the cue.
"Izzy" & "otto" video - She did really well with her "otto", which we've been working on restoring. But then she had difficulty with "izzy". She goobered up the first one, switching to "otto" midway. Then she did a brilliant one. I wish I'd known it was going to be hard for her and I would have stopped with the one. I wish I had thought to turn toward her so I could reward smaller parts of this, until she was ready to do another whole one. I moved to a different part of the room so she wasn't looking right at the other dogs. Not sure why it morphed into a "turn" for a bit there, but we did get it.
"Scoot" & "grape" video - I followed "otto" & "izzy" with some known simple behaviors and then we did a really short session on "scoot" with a couple of "grape" thrown in. I just wanted to end on a fun note.
Circle 3x video - Gimme had a really hard time getting into a working mindset (starting the second session), so we had to work that out first. Even then she was really wide in her "behind", though it got better. I think my training could have been more effective, i.e. by rewarding several full "behind" circles before asking for multiples. She did much better with "around"; likely because we'd already gotten her brain into the game.
Circles as handler turns opposite video - Gimme is supposed to make two circles for my one turn. We didn't get two in any of these. I was happy to reward her enthusiastically working with me.
Spin to center video - This went so much better, even though we hadn't practiced it in ages. There were little bobbles the first time, but she quickly got into what we were doing.
Simultaneous spins video - You may have noticed the circle around me in the last video to get into "side" and then she did it again here. I didn't realize it before, but I think she's using the "side" cue as a reason to offer a "behind", hoping to get rewarded for it. I don't get why J'Anna was laughing - I thought Gimme did fine considering we haven't done this in many months.
Center pivot and sidepass video - Gimme did these nicely. She always does a better job stepping her rear to her right, in both the pivot and the sidepass. Clearly I need to practice more going the other direction.
I have since practiced all of these again at home and Gimme did much better. She is easing out of the false pregnancy, which helps with focus, as does being at home.
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