MDSA online workshop

As a member of Musical Dog Sport Association (MDSA), I get to participate in monthly online workshops.  This month's workshop is focusing on combination moves and also line dance moves. Of course I've been promoting Gimme's Spinotto and Turnizzy combo moves. They've been a huge hit. The line dance moves are fun to learn, but I'm no dancer, so it's challenging to say the least. Naturally Gimme looks good no matter what we do...

MDSA Grapevine video - I found Gimme did better when I didn't take such big steps. We've been working a lot on her sidepasses in practice and I see it comes together nicely when she realizes which behavior we're doing. I really need to put these on cue. Sswhe's doing so much better maintaining alignment. I already use grapevine when I am sidestepping into Gimme, but I start with the step-behind to let her know I'm closing in.

MDSA Heel strut video - Much of the difficulty in this is on my part - trying to get a feel for this dance step. Looking at this right after I edited the sequence video from the next day, I see a big difference in how Gimme is able to move. In the sequence video I moved slower, which is not a smooth speed for Gimme. She's so sweet to put up with my nonsense.

When I shared these two videos with the MDSA list, I made the comment that they weren't working behaviors. Karen took exception to my statement and sweetly edited the two together, putting them to the music by ABBA - Gimme, Gimme, Gimme video.  I can't believe how much better it looks just by adding the music.

MDSA Heel strut sequence video - I was planning a combination of Heel Strut, Heel Close and Rocking Chair. I also thought Gimme would be able to go from "center" to "side" and finish with an "izzy" on the cue "izzy"; likewise with the cue "otto". She's normally so smart she just puts stuff like this together on her own, but I guess this concept was too vague for her. She did this variant once each for "izzy" and "otto", but not afterward.  However, she did notice a dog in the park, so it may have been too distracting. Rocking Chair feels really awkward to me, so I'll probably substitute Montana Kick in the future.

I sent a question to the list about Rocking Chair. I'm wondering if it is intended to be a 4-beat step rather than a 3-beat step. I noticed when I watched the example again, the presenter was doing 1-2-3 Rocking Chair steps and then a quarter turn, making a 4th beat. I was planning to do it stationary (no turn), which created a 3-beat step; maybe why it felt so awkward. Perhaps it would feel more natural if I paused between iterations, making it a 4-beat.