The weather was milder than it has been, so the instructors set up four vehicle searches. Gimme was on fire and I wasn't half-bad myself.
Vehicle 1 video - Gimme was really fast and direct. I have to say she is getting better and better about giving me "the look" for an alert. It's great when I see it, but if I miss her look, then she goes to something more assertive.
Vehicle 2 video - Gimme is very efficient finding all three hides here. Note how she gives me "the look" and then starts moving toward me. I think she appreciates it when I am being more efficient about reward delivery.
Vehicle 3 video - Bim bada boom. Don't blink or you'll miss it.
Vehicle 4 video - We were given the option to search off leash, but I chose not to. These were tight quarters and I didn't want to risk Gimme getting too far from me, causing me to miss a call resulting in her pawing a vehicle. I had a little pebble stuck in the tread of my shoe and it made an odd noise, distracting her right off of sourcing a hide. Fortunately she is persistent and goes right back to the hide. It was very tight spacing and almost forced me to be still, though I moved when I had the opportunity. It made it hard to video as well. I was very proud of her when I missed the second alert look - she just went to do it again and there was no sign of the paw coming up. Yay for Gimme.
I want to go back and look at some of our other recent vehicle searches to see if this has been developing all along, or if it is just now coming together. I do think this is the first class where all of Gimme's indications were "the look". This has been a long time coming and it's exciting. If it is more likely with vehicles, then it would stand to reason, at least partly it's because I am faster to call alert to prevent damage to vehicles. Since she is now more consistent with it, clearly I need to work on getting her to make "the look" into "the stare" and to transition this to other elements. Yay, yay, YAY for Gimme...
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