RFE practice (86)

I am so far behind in blogging. Been very busy dealing with "stuff". This blog is from practice two weeks ago. We are in the midst of Snowmageddon 2019, so there may not be a practice tomorrow. It would be okay with me, since I hurt my foot during the first day of the tracking seminar and then spent the whole three days tramping around doing exactly what injured it in the first place. Got it adjusted on Tuesday, but haven't been able to stay off it, so a day off would be good. Friday will be very long.

Java Jive doodling video - I started out just moving around with Gimme to the Java Jive music. I was trying to get a feel for what I could do to look dance-like and yet work with Gimme. I discovered quickly how distracting this is for Gimme. She's used to my movements making sense and these were nonsensical to her. Clearly *I* need to do a lot of work on myself. My movement is passable, but my arms look like broken wings. We did about three times as much as is shown here. Once I decide on a choreography it will be easier to figure out what to do with my body parts, eh.

Arms as distractions video - I did a little work trying to click and reward Gimme when she was closer to "heel" and "side" positions despite my arm movement. I saw a little improvement. I think I can make it clearer for her when I have a plan and know what arm movements to work through.

"East" & "West" videos - Ray Underwood led our January MDSA workshop and the second thing he had us teach our dogs was the positions behind us. I named them "East" and "West", to reference the way Gimme would be facing, assuming I was facing North. Based on his video, I decided to use our existing cues, "Otto" or "Izzy", followed by "Halt". Then I'd name the positions while feeding treats. It worked amazingly well. I hadn't realized how turning my shoulders was affecting my body all the way down to my feet. I need to work on rewarding her when she is better aligned. But, I don't want to have her leaning into my legs as Ray prefers. Clearly I need to get my mirrors out and could probably use the couch as a guide. I might even try it with my platforms. The refinement I want to concentrate on is getting her to square up perpendicular to me. Getting her into the position was really easy.

Center sidepasses videos - I worked some sidepasses with distractions. I was trying to time rewards when she was better centered. She was tending to let her heiney lag, but got better as we worked.

"Boop" and "Beep" videos - We've been practicing our backward weaves at home, concentrating on "boop" from the right "side" since its her less comfortable turning direction. Gimme has gotten more comfortable and often has trouble waiting for the cue. It doesn't seem like she's gotten the point about turning her heiney to back through, not consistently, though sometimes it looks good. She was so sticky about doing it from "heel" I put my foot on the wall to help her get started. Clearly it's time to start doing both sides.