Nosework class (2/44)

Container 1 video - There were 4 hides and we weren't supposed to go back if they missed one.  Given Gimme's issues with pollen right now, I went back for one of them anyway.  

Container 2 video - This time there were 3 hides and she caught every one right away. I think she has to work harder with the pollen issue, and it just takes her a bit to get her brain in gear.  She has a long history of it being easy, so perhaps she just expects easy and then has to remind herself to work at it.  I'll never know, since she doesn't tell me these things.

Container 3 video - With just two hides, this was easy peasy.

Container 4 video - Dorothy thought I was lunging Gimme around the containers giving her permission to check all of them - whereas I was thinking in terms of not getting between her and the one hide.  There's no guarantee she would have searched different if on a shorter leash - we don't know.  In a trial I wouldn't know where it was, so probably would go with her.  Hard to say.

Vehicles video - Three vehicles and 4 hides, nothing on the first truck.  You can see Gimme pays no attention to it.  She gets right to the first hide under the trailer bumper.  She follows the scent out and then right back to the hide on the trailer tires.  Gimme gets the truck license plate hide as soon as she gets to the front of the truck.  The only real challenge was the trailer hitch hide.  I think she would have gotten it faster, but she saw me getting treats out of the pouch and then she assumed she was close enough.  I just had to wait her out and then she got to source.

Overall she did very well.  I've started her on bee pollen and hope it will help her soon.  I usually start her on it in late march and end in October, so this is late to start it, but I just couldn't get it sooner.

RFE practice (116)

After our dismal performance 2 weeks before, I was prepared to work on focus first and above all.  I think it went well. 

Focus work video - I didn't let her free sniff this time, started with a down stay on her matt instead. Then some heeling and such to earn the sniffing time.  She was a little bit distracted, but already far better than before.  I was pleased with how this went.

Freeshaping "paw" video - I was truly surprised this went as well as it did.  When I recently started freeshaping this trick in an effort to get it back, it completely fell apart when I moved from the living room to the kitchen.  So I didn't expect Gimme to be able to do it right away in this location.

Quick doodle video - This is just a quick doodle with part of the plan I have.  It needs refinement, but Gimme was working with me.

Quick walk through video - Here we walked through my plan.  There's nothing firm about it, just some ideas I had.  I wanted to encourage Gimme to work with me for longer time, so she could get a big pay-off.

Run-thru w/music video - We are still working out technical issues for the music, so we lost some of it.  I need to insert 5-10 seconds of silence at the beginning so I have time to get in position.  Also I need to rethink my choreography, so her body is moving in the right direction when I cue a behavior.  For example a "spin" ends with her heiney going in the right direction for the start of "otto".

Behavior warm up video - I ran through some behaviors.  One thing you'll see is where I do a center 360º pivot in counter-clockwise direction, which makes a natural segue into her "otto".  Those are the kinds of tweaks I'm looking for.

Thru 2 w/music video - I can see potential here.  I like the extra steps in the Thru to Front... I think Gimme does better going "thru" with the momentum of the extra steps.  I think I've found a place to put a spin-to-center also.  Ideas ideas ideas...

I did three more runs with music and they went pretty good.  Unfortunately, the camera battery died, so I have nothing to show you. In any case, each was better than the last.

I was contemplating entering the next RFE freestyle competition in September, entry deadline is today.  However, my laptop is dying - it keeps gasping for breath, so I had to buy a new one.   I paid for full tech support for a year and they are loading all my software and doing the set-up stuff.  Tomorrow I drop off this half-dead laptop and they'll do the data transfer.  But then I have to upload new video editing software and learn to use it.  So I didn't want to be rushing through the learning curve.  Just means we'll have plenty of time to tweak our routine.

Field Tracking (69 & 70) and Urban (164)

I am a bit late in getting these tracking blogs done, but they are all very similar.  My plan was a capital "R" shaped track, where the section near the first leg is much closer than you would see at a tracking test.  I wanted to train to a more difficult level than we'll be tested on.

On Thursday, July 23rd, Nadine and I met at Flaming Geyser and did the first of our "R" tracks.  I didn't make the spacing clear, so Nadine laid a track where the legs were too far apart.  I was looking for something like 25-40 feet and this was more like 60 feet.  Gimme showed no sign she noticed the other leg in either part of the track.  She did enjoy the easy track in the 3' tall grass.

 

On Thursday, July 30th, Nadine and I met at Game Farm Park to repeat the "R" tracks under different conditions. I thought I was clear about the spacing I wanted for Gimme, but the legs were even farther apart.  It was about 75 feet.  Gimme definitely didn't notice the other leg in either part of the track.  It worked out okay though, since it was hot and dry and the pollen level was very high.

 

 

 

 

Today, Thursday, August 6th, we again met at Flaming Geyser and Gimme got her third "R" track.  (we did something different for Cricket and Sugar).  This time the legs were 20-25 feet and the close-together section was MUCH longer.  The shape was a bit different to make use of the space we had available, so it doesn't look much like an "R". Gimme definitely noticed the other leg in both directions.  The first time I helped her figure it out with just a little bit of line tension.  The other times, she'd explore in the direction of the other leg, but then leave it on her own.  While we were getting ready to lay tracks, a deer sauntered right across where Gimme's track was going to be laid, so she had an extra challenge.  She was very interested in where the deer had passed through, but then went back to work.

I was very pleased with her efforts today with both the intended and unintended challenges.  In a few weeks we'll do the "R" or something similar again. 

I did finally get some bee pollen today.  I'm not sure if it will do her any good, since I normally start giving it to her in late-March-early-April, and continue through early October.  Time will tell. 

RFE practice (115)

 

There was a scheduling mix-up, so we had very little time. Next time we'll be back on our regular schedule. BTW I can actually get this new blogger editing software to work if I use my other browser - so we are back to "normal".

 

Doodles video -Gimme was very distractible, much worse than our last practice. We finally had a little "discussion" and she did a bit better, but nowhere near what she's capable of. Clearly our 4-month break didn't do us any good. I have ideas for next time to promote better focus. This is just a string of clips as we doodle to the music.

I'm still drawing a blank on choreography. I'm going to see if I can get an external speaker to use with my laptop; the volume of the laptop speakers isn't enough. It sounds okay on the video because J'Anna is only ten feet from it. It's not very clear out on the floor.

 

Bits and pieces video -This shows just a few behaviors and she got better focus as it went along. It occurs to me, maybe she does better and has more focus when I know what I'm doing, when I have a plan. I will have a plan for our routine for our next practice, so I'll see then if it makes a big difference or not.

 

Backward Weave Stays video - I've come to the conclusion that the whole backward weaves concept is polluted because I started teaching it during the summer-from-hell. So all the anxiety she was feeling is attached to the behavior or anything reminding her of it, which brings up the anxious feelings. I am going to stop working on the "wait" while-I-back-up-and-step-across. I'll need her to do the straight back through for another RFE behavior, so I want to separate them before there's any cross-contamination.

 

In the meantime I've come up with a completely different idea to train backward weaves. I will teach her four positions where she hip targets part of my body and then cue them in order to create backward weaves.. One thing I need her to do is take up a forged "heel" and "side"; they'll be "hip" (L) and "thigh" (R), where she will target my knee with her hip. Then I will re-teach the "east" and "west" alternate positions behind me facing to the side. We've just started these two positions, so it'll be more of a refinement for her. So my goal is to create these positions:

• "hip" - her right hip touching left knee, facing forward
• "thigh" - her left hip touching right knee, facing forward
• "east" - her left hip touching back of right knee, facing 90º to my right
• "west" - her right hip touching back of left knee, facing 90º to my left

I'm going to use free-shaping on this for two reasons. First, she loves free-shaping, so she'll develop more enthusiasm, which I hope will transition to confidence when we get to the part which is like backward weaves. Second, given her concerns about my feet, I don't think she'd tolerate me stepping into position and trying to create the target by touching her body with mine. I want to keep it completely her idea to touch my body with hers and going at her own pace.

 

In the meantime, I've started free-shaping her "paw" behavior. We lost it completely when I asked her to do it and didn't know she had a cracked toenail. So when she tried to do it, it hurt and she's not dumb enough to do something that hurts a second time. I've started by shaping her to put her paw on my shoe, without my foot in it. Then - my foot close to the shoe - foot touching shoe - foot moving shoe - toes in shoe - moving shoe with toes in it - half of foot in shoe, then moving. Finally we got to foot mostly in shoe while I was standing. At this point I started tossing the treat behind her so I could move the shoe when she was still a little away, but coming toward me. It was at this point where she volunteered the paw-to-knee behavior and I gave her a jackpot.

 

We are making steady progress, though the whole behavior fell apart when we tried to do it in the kitchen and I had to start over. I expect we'll have to shape it from scratch at the training building. Once this is better developed and more enthusiastic, then I'll get serious about free-shaping the positions. Before we start, I want to regain her confidence about the whole concept of touching my body parts with her body parts during training. She's fine about it outside of training, though she sometimes shows concern about my feet.

 

I'd love to get her bold and confident self back. Sadly it may take a very long time.