RFE practice (82)

This practice was really weird. I know Gimme can be super sensitive during her false pregnancies, but this beat the cake. Neither J'Anna or I could figure out what Gimme was getting so upset about. [you may notice ring gates set up - they were there because I was recording J'Anna and Glory in their WorldWide entry, which I didn't enter]

Heeling warm-up video - We started with a little heeling warm-up and threw in some backward steps in heel. She did this nicely. Gimme has a consistent problem of overrunning when I stop or slow down. This was an issue in our West2 entry, so I need to focus on it. She had a lapse of attention when a puppy squeaked in daycare. Overall it went well, especially given her condition.

Paw lifts video - I was trying to get left paw lifts ("low") and she did a couple then switched to giving me "pretty" (both paws up high). I was trying to reward single paw lifts, because for the left paw, she tends to bring up the right paw with it, which is points off. I think she is more flexible on the right ("high") and so she can lift it without the other foot coming up. I offer her my hand to "paw" and she just gets all weird about it. She hadn't touched me, so I know she wasn't shocked with static. I tried to work through it, but she just was weirded-out and couldn't work consistently. I switched to nose touches and it helped a little, but other times she just acted scared of my hand. I did a lot of treat tossing to get her to happy again. I tried paw touch to my foot and she avoided this too.

I don't know what was bothering her on this day. She acted like she was afraid, but I don't know what it was about. She did have an episode later that evening, but no recurrence. I've examined her feet/nails and found nothing amiss. Just to be safe, I've limited her activities, though nothing else seems to be an issue. I've also scheduled a chiropractor treatment for this Thursday. This may be an unsolvable mystery.

Center front pivot video - At first she avoided this, but spitting some treats at her helped her get in the game. From there we were able to get some credible pivots, with lots of treats to reward her for remaining in "center" position.

Sidepasses video - We did a very brief bit of sidepasses, with Gimme in "heel", both away from her and toward her. She did well. It was very awkward for me going into her because I wanted to be extra careful not to bump her with my foot.

"Cane" & "orbit" video - At first Gimme acted afraid of the cane. I got her to work by tossing treats when she was moving around/near the cane. We got some good ones, but it was clear Gimme wasn't focused. She seemed to be struggling to focus on verbal cues.

Brick" & "pivot" video - She struggled with this on video day for our West2 entry and yet on this day, when she was struggling with other very basic stuff, this was easy peasy.

Scoot" video - Gimme likes these, so I let her do some as a reward for coming back to work with me.

"Under" video - I would think this would be intimidating and yet she had no issue with it. I threw a treat for her and then had her find "under".

Doodling video - I wanted to end on a really up note. So I started with really easy behaviors, helped her with a couple and continued to have her "izzy" which can be a challenge for her. She got paid for three-fourths of an "izzy" and then the next one was the full deal.

I have no clue what her problem was this day (mostly edited out). I haven't been able to find anything pain-wise and I see nothing in the videos to explain what she was upset about. It may have been all in her head. Whatever it was, I'd be happy to never see a repeat. Our next session isn't until December 20th, so we'll see how it goes then. I plan to keep it simple, unless I see her begging for more. Right now she's getting bored with motherhood, so I look forward to her being back to her usual self.