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.