RallyFrEe (3/3)

RallyFrEe (3/3) and a smidgen of nosework class...  

I've been thinking about my concern about the nosework back-to-baby-basics emphasis by our co-instructor.  My objection has been the tendency I've noticed after having already found an odor box and gobbled up the self-serve cookies, on Gimme’s second time back to the box she checks it for self-serve cookies and then quickly moves on.  I don't see this as a good thing.  So the solution I thought of and will try at the next class, is: when she is gobbling the self-serve, I will keep adding more treats; to keep her mindful of getting goodies from me, even after self-serve.  Hopefully then when she doesn't find the self-serve cookies, she'll pause, giving me time to pay up.

RallyFrEe class on Thursday morning was great.  Even though we had a skip week in there, I didn't get to work much on our two behaviors - due to a ten day migraine and extra work hours.  I talked to Kathy before class and asked her if there was time, for help repairing Gimme's "side" (offside heeling) behavior.

Our first behavior we were working on was to tighten up her circle around me from the offside position.  Gimme starts and ends in position, but is really wide in front and on my left as she makes the circle.  I tried to work on it once and Gimme just didn't want to - it was then I realized she needed to see Tonya for body and energy work.  It was a very interesting session.  Afterward Gimme did better, was more willing.  I then realized part of the reason she goes wide is probably because its her awkward turning direction.  I was able to show some improvement for class.  Kathy cleaned up some of my mechanics and we got even more improvement.

Part of the difficulty for me is using the clicker when I need to have my hands free to treat in any position and always wanting to make sure I'm not clicking in her ear.  It hurts my ears when the clicker is too close, so I think it’d be worse for the dogs.  Kathy suggested using a "mouth click" (making a click-ish noise with my mouth), but I can't due to the cleft palate. I've since experimented with a soft clicker I got from a friend.  I'm going to try to get a second one and a wrist bungee for each.  They are soft enough I wouldn't worry about clicking in Gimme's ear.

After this we worked on her "down" in the offside heel position.  I hadn't done this at all in the two weeks since the last class and even had to look it up on the blog to see what our second behavior was.  Its the down-stand behavior and I chose the offside position because it would be weakest.  To start with I need to simply get her to down and remain aligned in position, since she tends to turn her butt out about 45° as she lays down.

Kathy had me do it with some barriers set up.  At first Gimme was confused by the barriers, but then after she got used to them was fine.  In fact, she was so fine, the third time when we were approaching, Gimme ran ahead to lay down in the place I’d given her the cue twice before.  Even though it wasn’t what I wanted, I was happy to see her thinking and trying to be right.  Afterward we varied where on the barriers I asked her to down and she did great.  I need to practice this some more using natural barriers at home (different pieces of furniture) and then will start moving away from them and see if we can keep the position.

J’Anna, a classmate, wanted some help with her back-around and I wanted to play with the course Kathy had set up, so they went into a different part of the building so I could have Gimme off leash while playing with the course.  Gimme was distracted by the Shelties who kept getting up to look over their barrier, but once I spent a couple of minutes working on basics, she did well. I found she was popping forward of both “heel” and “side” and so missing cues.  For instance if the sign was a thru-transition and she doesn’t slow or stop with me, she is already too far out of position to do the thru when I cue it.  This is a symptom of her broken “side”, though this is the first time I saw it infecting “heel” as well.  Arrrrrgh.

Kathy was able to help me with this retraining “side”, which I’ve been trying to reteach the same way I first taught.  Kathy had me shape it, by capturing moments when Gimme passed through the position and gradually ask for tighter and tighter requirements.  I realized in doing this, I’ve been trying to work on too many criteria at once.  Since she used to know it well, I was getting frustrated when she would sit or forge past me or any number of things.  Gimme was well aware of my frustration and was avoiding me a little at those times when she thought it was most likely to happen – which was unfortunately adding to my frustration, thus we were in a downward spiral.

So the criteria for basic heeling, broken down to individual training items, is:
●  loosely in position
●  moderately in position
●  tightly in position
●  duration in position
●  slowing with me
●  speeding up with me
●  stopping with me
●  remaining standing after stopping (“side” position)
●  remaining aligned after stopping

Gimme was willing to move with me, but the moment I slowed or stopped would move away.  So Kathy had me abandon treating her in position and instead click in position and then throw the treat.  I can’t do this at home because our living room training area is too small (5x10 feet) and tossed treats too often go under furniture.  If we do it in the yard it would take forever waiting for her to find treats in the grass.  Then I remembered the seldom used tennis courts, just a five minute walk from the house.

During class we were able to shape up to moderately in position with a little bit of duration in position.  Kathy had me catch her in position, say the cue “side”, then click and toss the treat.  Tossing the treat meant Gimme got to run out and pounce on it, introducing a bunch of fun into the training.   Today we did a little bit of capturing of loosely in position during our walk when Gimme was able to be off leash, with clicks and tossed treats.  Later we did a session at the tennis courts and once she got acclimated, Gimme did well.  I got mostly moderately in position with a few tightly in position.  The best part was getting some instances of enough duration in position so I could click/treat in position and then after a bit more duration, click and toss the treat.  Gimme had fun and I was very happy with how it went.

I am very happy to have Kathy as a trainer.  She’s very insightful and completely reward based.  I am so glad to have her to train with.  I’m sure Gimme is happy to have her too – she likes having someone she can rely on to straighten me out when I get crooked.

Well, I promised Gimme another training session today.  Can’t keep the Empress waiting…

Nosework (5/7)

I discovered last night and this morning I've broken Gimme - poor munchkin.  We've been training a clockwise back-around me and though we haven't really done much, its been enough to strain a muscle behind her right shoulder.  She turns right more readily than left, so I think in addition to using this muscle to push back and to the left in an unusual way, she's pushing against a bit of body stiffness.  Fortunately I was able to get her to see Tonya right away today and she worked on her quite a bit with massage, body work and energy work.

Now I'm massaging her whenever I can.  Then we'll be doing some cookie stretches to increase her flexibility to the left.  I'm not going to train the back-around for a few weeks.  In the meantime I'll be training "Tivo" (clockwise forehand pivot) and 360º Center Front (clockwise direction).  I'm hoping this will strengthen the muscle more gradually before we return to training back-around.

Tonight nosework class started with an exterior search of a very long narrow area.  We were supposed to try to verbalize what we were seeing.  As much as I talk you'd think this would come easy to me, but not so.  For the life of me when I was supposed to be talking I couldn't.  And yet Dorothy says when I'm searching and not thinking about talking, everything I say to Gimme is right.  So perhaps the answer is to talk "to Gimme" about what she's doing - perhaps it wouldn't feel so much like trying to divide my attention. Anyway, there were three hides and Gimme did a good job of finding them all.  She ran the show and clearly knew what she was doing.

Then we went inside for container searches.  There was 20 boxes and six pieces of luggage with a handful of other containers.  We only knew there were no more than 4 hides.  Gimme found the two box hides very quickly and never really paid much attention to the luggage, so I called finished.  There were two more hides in luggage.  They had me search again right away and pay her for even a passing sniff at the luggage.  I did and Gimme was happy to get paid.

There was a bit of discussion and the co-instructor said there is obviously something broken in Gimme's foundation on containers.  I do mostly luggage for containers, but haven't done many practices on my own in the last 9 months.  I said I wondered if its because we so seldom have the odor in luggage.  Both instructors think I am wrong so it could have nothing to do with it.  

Then the co-instructor concluded Gimme is bored with peanut butter.  Seriously???  Her reasoning was because she likes ice cream, but would get bored with it if she got it all the time.  I think there is a big difference between "liking" something and being addicted to it.  Do you know any crack cocaine addict who would say, "no I've really had too much crack lately, I'd really just prefer a beer."  Not.  I have referred to peanut butter as Gimme-crack before - she'll never get enough of it.

So for our next search of the same containers, which was off leash, they gave me some roast chicken and I was supposed to simultaneously present chicken and peanut butter for each find and let Gimme choose which she wanted.  What happened?  She went for the peanut butter every time.  She was happy to eat the chicken, but only after the peanut butter was taken away.  I rest my case.

For the third container search (off leash) they swapped the locations of the box and luggage hides.  This time Gimme ignored the boxes and kept returning to the luggage until I kept lingering near the boxes.  Basically I think we made such a big fuss over the luggage finds, she thought I now have a preference for them.

I was still certain I was right about the box-luggage-containers hides, so I reviewed my blog since I started taking classes with Dorothy.  Fortunately I use the label feature and keep really detailed records, so it was easy to single in on the entries where we'd done container searches.  In 13 months: she has found odor in 38 boxes, 32 other containers, and twice in luggage.  These numbers for other containers are skewed quite a bit because one night the only containers they had were plastic water bottles, where she found odor in them 24 times.  So if we throw out the water bottle numbers, its 38 boxes, 8 containers and 2 pieces of luggage.  The relative percentages are 79% boxes, 17% other containers and only 4% in luggage.  

Now granted, she should find odor no matter where it is.  But given how much harder luggage is to source odor because of how its trapped in deep recesses and absorbed by cloth, it makes sense she would go for the easy ones.  Also, we had two level one element trials for containers and they were all boxes.  The element trials had 4 searches each with one box hide, so we can add 8 more box hides into the numbers during this time frame.  Factor in the element trials and she's now found 82% of her hides in boxes and under 4% in luggage.  And don't forget, she has a much longer history of finding odor in boxes, because its all you train early on.  I think it stands to reason she doesn't think luggage pays very often.  Why didn't the other dogs get this message?  I assume its because they aren't as smart as Gimme is... 

I take it as a clear lesson of what can happen when you get in a training rut.  I'm sure they don't put odor in luggage as often because it takes so much time to air out luggage to make sure the odor is gone before you can use it as a blank bag.  Whereas boxes and most other containers are going to be simpler to air out, as well as easier to store in large numbers.  I guess I need to get out and do some practices and for sure I'll be bringing my luggage collection along.

And Gimme just says, "whatever, so long as there is peanut butter..."

RallyFrEe (3/1)

Class was again very good.  Kathy is a methodical and organized instructor.  She has a solid ability to watch and provide feedback to several students at once.  She remembered where we were last week, so noticed Gimme's big improvement with the pivot platform on my right and how much her pivots had improved.  

At one point we'd finished the exercise, so Gimme and I were reviewing her independent pivot behavior (i.e. not tied to heel position).  Gimme was a little frustrated and was "talking" to me with a whining tone.  Kathy asked me about the noise and what it meant.  I told her I thought Gimme was a bit frustrated.   Kathy reminded me, if I'm still using a prop to get a behavior, I should break off and do something entirely different before using the same prop to get a different behavior so as not to confuse Gimme.  Well duh, I should have known it...

We started class by reviewing the things we worked on last week and seeing where we are now.  As I said, Gimme had a huge improvement and was able to demonstrate it well, even in the distracting class setting.  Kathy teaches the side pass based on the pivot with the dog's front feet as the pivot point.  Its an interesting way to teach it, one I'd never seen before.  She said the advantage to this method is the dog moves their rear end toward you and then their front end, so you don't end up with a dog with a side pass done at a 45° angle, where the front end stays with you and the rear end lags.  Kathy also said a side pass is a totally unnatural behavior physically speaking, so once you are actually side passing, never do much at one time. 

She had us start with the footwork for a 90° pivot.  We move our inside foot (the one closest to the dog) 90° to a point in front of the dog.  As the handler steps the outside foot up to join the inside foot, the dog will pivot their rear into position parallel with you, as they turn their front feet.  The 90° step starts teaching the dog the physical cue for the side pass, by creating exaggerated hip and knee movement.  If you are doing 
it correctly, it takes four 90° 
pivots to do a circle.  

After you have done this a few times, you switch to a 45° pivot.  It is all the same, except you move your foot 45° instead of 90°.  This will create a hip and knee movement which is a bit more subtle than before.  Your dog will notice these hip and knee movements and they become a physical cue for a side pass toward you.  Obviously it takes eight 45° pivots to do a circle.

When you are ready to actually work on the side pass, you will turn your inside foot as if to take the 45° step, but instead of placing the foot in front of your dog, you'd place it in front of or past your outside foot.  The dog will "read" your hip/knee cue and start pivoting her rear behind/toward you and then when they realize you aren't in front of them, they'll move their front end over to remain in "heel" or "side" position.  Thus you train a side pass where the dog leads with their rear and develops a habit which doesn't degenerate to the 45°angled side pass.

Kathy then demonstrated four different ways we could use this physical cue to do a side pass, showing us different ways to dance in a side pass.  Its intriguing.  Gimme isn't ready for the side pass, so we just practiced the 90° and 45° pivots with my foot work.  She does it better when she's on my left, but did pretty darn good on the right.

Another thing I did in class was to be very conscientious about not doing all the work for Gimme about relaxing in the class setting.  I realized over the weekend at the barn hunt trial (which I've not yet blogged about), I'm doing all the work for Gimme and its getting to where it takes more and more from me.  Its a bad habit I've fallen into.  

Last year I noticed Gimme was really unable to relax when we were out and about.  So based on Kathy's advice, I took Gimme out for some relaxation walks.  This is just me walking 100 feet and then stopping and standing or sitting in one place and waiting until Gimme relaxed on her own before moving on.  She actually picked it up very quickly.  Unfortunately I haven't stuck with it and haven't done enough of it in different, less calm settings.  So I've fallen into a bad habit of managing her behavior with lots of treats and such.  Managing her is doable, but it also means Gimme never relaxes, which is ultimately stressful and tiring (for both of us, eh).

So today was the first of my planned instances where I will just wait for Gimme to relax.  She was doing a lot of pestering and hinting, trying to get me to pay up like she is accustomed to.  I just repeated to her, "relaxation is its own reward", and waited.  Gimme thinks this new mantra is a load of horsey poopy.  However, she did get more settled.  She was still pestering and hinting from time to time, but overall was much more relaxed than she has been this year.  At times she needed a hug from me, for reassurance.  I think its entirely normal with such a big change.  Whenever she was close enough and calm, I made sure to stroke her.  She's very tactile, so this is a reward which actually supports a calm state.   

I think this will pay big dividends as she learns to relax and calm herself in public and other challenging situations.  I look at it as part of the process for her to grow up, where she takes more responsibility for her own emotional state.  I also plan to get back into practicing the relaxation protocol.  Its more boring than dirt, but I know its good for high mental energy dogs.

We met up with Tonya on the way home to get more flower essences for the both of us, body work for Gimme and a very quick communication session.  Tonya noticed how much quieter Gimme was in the car and when she communicated with her how much calmer her mind was.  These things are all coming together methinks.  

Agility (6/5) & Video

I apologize for being so quiet this week.  No nosework class on Monday, plus I've had a mild migraine for 10 days.  I got back on caffeine to combat the lethargy from the drugs for my hand. Recently I've been so tired, sleeping all the time, but never getting rested.  I conclude its because of how caffeine interferes with the quality of my sleep.  Whenever I "quit" caffeine, I struggle with migraines for about 2 weeks.  Nasty business, but better than walking around in a fog 24/7. 

Since our last agility class, we've had two more sessions with Tonya.  Its taking a lot of effort to get this neck/back issue under control.  I had the session right after the head smacking (the barn hunt tunnel injury) and I thought it would be enough.  Clearly it wasn't and the time between then and when this flared up again a couple weeks ago seems to be enough for it to get deeply seated.  Our session this Wednesday required the least effort.  Tonya is about to go on vacation and will be gone for three weeks, so I'll have her check Gimme before she leaves.

Yesterday for agility class, Gimme did much better.  We jumped low and she was quite a bit more focused.  Blynn reminded me to move with determination.  When Gimme is unfocused and not reliably responding to my cues, my tendency is to compensate - essentially doing more than my "share".  This is similar to how I trained her when she was younger and it took a lot of Blynn's coaching to break the habit and teach Gimme to do her part.  Apparently its easy for me to fall back into those habits.  

Thus our first run was choppy.  Gimme was working well, having fun and trying hard, but I wasn't always giving her the cues she needed.  Plus when I'm compensating, then I'm also not moving out.  In a motion-based handling system, not moving out does not equal good cuing.  

Our second run was much better.  I was determined to really move and did a bit better.  One turn to a jump at the very beginning of the course was quite challenging.  Gimme kept bypassing it.  I finally got her on the correct side and said "jump" and she did just what I said - crashing into the uprights.  I was really surprised because she normally has a very good sense of self preservation.  I think she must've been so focused on me, she just followed my verbal cue without really looking where she was jumping.  Otherwise the course was really nice and she was focused and doing a good job.  

Here are video's from mid April, just two weeks after my hand first went kaflooey.  Gimme was focused and fast and back to her usual style; probably because I felt better.  We had a few challenging spots and were able to work through them nicely.  My verbal cues continue to be late - it would be just as effective to leave them out entirely.

Gimme started out well, but was distracted by treats left dropped someone right near the aframe.  Clearly a training hole we'll have to address at some point.  She shouldn't be finding food on a course once we are in competition, but sometimes they are held at sites where classes are taught, so she could be drawn off by enticing smells left behind.  Once I picked up all the treats, she did well until the 2nd to last jump - its easy to pressure her off a jump unintentionally.   

She really is the smartest dog I've ever worked with.  Early this year I taught her to send to a tunnel opening turned away from her and it took her a few tries then, but she figured it out quickly.  We haven't seen that exercise since then, but it was in tonight's course and she aced it as if we'd just trained it recently.  She rarely forgets anything.

We had difficulty with the poles because Blynn wanted me to handle it differently and I hadn't trained Gimme to the level required.  I still need to work on her commitment to the poles.  You'll see once she gets it right - afterward, she just does it like she'd been doing it all her life.

 041714A Agility Class
 

Between her runs, everyone was complimenting her and talking about how smart she is.  They really like watching her learn things because she puzzles through it and then when she gets it, she's so obvious; like, "ohhhh, why didn't you just say so..."  Then she's cocky about it.  Everyone loves her attitude, and of course, how cute and pretty she is.

The second run was nice.  Not a lot to comment on.  Gimme was really doing her job, so all Blynn's advice was about me.

 041714B Agility Class

Agility (5/5)

Today we met with Tonya for another treatment.  Poor Gimme was still really out of whack, though it was mostly neck and shoulders, the hips and low back held the prior treatment.  Gimme had a lot of muscle knots.  Tonya really had to work on her for a long time to get everything back to normal.  I was going to skip class and keep her home, but Tonya thought it would be better to get her moving.  So we decided to jump her with the little dogs in class and do no weaves.

For our first course, Gimme was eager to work and attentive, but the first few starts she would not do the first jump.  Each time she just neatly stepped around it.  I immediately realized she was concerned about it hurting, so I lured her over the jump with a tossed treat a few times.  From then on she was fine with jumping.  

In fact in both courses I noticed a bit her wanting to just run and jump and not really pay attention to my cues.  She was paying attention, but was also focused far ahead and not making some turns which I was cuing correctly.  I know she knows the cuing.  It was like she was running along, playing and singing to herself, "la la-la la lah..."

I've been wondering what brought all this on and had a thought coming home. When this latest discombobulation started, it was exactly a month from the incident when Gimme ran headlong into a barn hunt tunnel and smacked her head so hard on the wooden tunnel roof.  We saw Tonya for a treatment right away.  The neck/head area was what needed work then and the same area has needed a lot of focus for these two treatments.  So I'm thinking the struggle over being positioned for the x-ray was enough to cause the same thing to resurface.  Adding in the affect of the x-ray disruption to her energy/chakra just made it really pronounced.  It wasn't such a huge struggle, but I suspect the issue was primed to crop up again and this was all it took.

Anyway, Gimme had fun in class, is clearly feeling better.  As we speak she is sound sleep.

Agility (4/5)

Class this week was not good.  I really expected it to be better than last week and in some ways it was.  It started out okay, but I found I couldn't keep Gimme focused and she seemed slow to me.  I felt like I was always ahead of her and pulling her along - which is definitely not our normal.  I knew there was something else 'off' during our first session, but didn't know what it was.

During the second session it was even worse and I realized what was different about the first session - it was the lack of connection.  Even when she isn't focused, I usually still feel connected to Gimme.  I can't explain the distinction, but I know it when I feel it.  During the second session, we struggled the whole time.  We'd get good bits but it wouldn't last.  

At one point Gimme came to me and needed a hug and reassurance.  I think she sensed how frustrated I was getting.  Blynn talked to me and said she thought Gimme was just working me and I shouldn't reward her with hugs.  I understand where she is coming from and we talked about it.  On the other hand, I know Gimme and I know when something is off.  

I thought it might have been because I gave her some rescue remedy before leaving home, to see if it would help with the car whining.  It did, but just a tiny bit.  I know a lot of people use RR for themselves and many people use it for dogs right before competing.  Still I also know the affect is highly variable, so I didn't discount the possibility it had a negative affect on Gimme.

On Friday I asked Tonya do animal communication with Gimme to find out what was wrong in class.  Among the many things they talked about, Gimme said about class "I wasn't myself" and "my hips hurt".  I didn't know what the first part meant, but was sure a bodywork treatment was in order. 

Tonya worked on Gimme today, doing both bodywork and energy work.  She did functional corrections from right behind her ears to her hips.  She also found a huge ball of dark/dirty energy around her belly and had to clear a chakra.  Right after the treatment, Gimme immediately went outside and peed a flood - I didn't know she had room for so much inside her.  Interesting, since her full bladder was the reason for the x-ray at the veterinary.  Gimme has been back to her usual self ever since her treatment.

Since its only been a few weeks since her last treatment, I've been trying to figure out why Gimme was so out of kilter when she really hasn't done anything out of the ordinary.  Then it occurred to me, perhaps this was all set in motion during the x-rays at the veterinary appointment.  It wasn't like there was a huge struggle, but she was very tense, resisting what we were trying to do and the x-ray table was very slick, so she was scrabbling for footing at times.  Plus the x-ray was of the area where Tonya found the dark/dirty energy and where the chakra she cleared was located.  

All interesting stuff.  I feel really fortunate to have Tonya so close to us. 

Bodywork & Agility (3/1)

We got to see Tonya on Tuesday.  Gimme really needed the session.  Her usual spot mid-back was really bad this time.  Tonya corrected it twice and both times it immediately popped out again.  So she did some energy work there, corrected it, did energy work again and then it stayed in.  She was also locked up at the very top of her neck where it attaches to her skull (probably why she was popping out of and avoiding the weaves).  She totally didn't want Tonya working on her neck - not even cooperating with peanut butter at her nose.  Once we got it corrected (I say we, because I had to restrain her so Tonya could do it) then she was much happier.  She also had the first joint of her tail locked up.

When I took her walking yesterday, she just ran and ran and ran and ran.  Like the wind she ran.  I was really beating myself up for not having noticing how "off" she was.  Then it occurred to me, I was attributing all her changed behavior to the false pregnancy. 

So, I've decided to simply schedule the treatments regularly, like every 4-6 weeks...  and hopefully it will be more preventative in nature.  As it is, Tonya wants to see her twice more over the next two weeks.  She had me jump her at a lower jump height last night and instructed me to see how she did with the weaves and then make a decision.

At class she was a dog with a mission.  She wanted to run and run and run and run.  It took a bit for her to settle down and work, but once she did, it was all great stuff.  She did fly off the a-frame for the first time in her life, "Look Mom, I fly..."  The only problem we are really having is with the tire jump.  The last time I thought it was the proximity to the wall, but last night it was in the middle of the course and she still had a problem.

We don't have class next week, but I'll be meeting Chris for fitness.  So I'll take Gimme and do a practice with her, doing lots of tires.  I think it just looks different to her and she's got it in her head to run under it instead.

BTW we have the NW2 trial this Sunday.  Start praying and crossing body parts now.  I am...

Nosework Practice

I'd forgotten to put my odor kit back in the car, so I didn't get the hides set in the morning.  Instead I went over well before we planned to meet, set them, then took Gimme for a 3 mile walk on a nearby trail.  That gave us a cook time of roughly 2 hours.

As you watch this, note that Gimme only goes into one shed that didn't have odor in it, quickly ruled it out and left.  Odor was in the 3rd, 7th and 9th sheds (relative to the startline).   She does "catalog" the first two and then goes on to find the others before coming back to indicate them.  I let her go behind the 9th shed, because the wind was blowing away from us and I wanted her to have a chance to detect the inaccessible odor from a vent 5 feet off the ground.

The 9th shed has that one in a vent at 5 feet up and then q-tips in the door right above the hinge  which you see in passing at 1:37 and 2:04.  At 2:57 she pulls the odor out from under the support of the 7th shed.  At 3:29 she finds the last hide (3rd shed), which Tucker had pulled down and we neglected to reset, so it was in the middle of the floor.  Gimme found all four in 3:22.4... a very respectable time for 4 hides in one search area - which she'll never see in a trial.

Gimme, even with her cataloging, is fast and accurate.  Our training buddy took over 9 minutes to find all four - with a little help from us.  He's not nearly as driven as Gimme.  Sometimes he is faster than she is, because she blasts by hides.  However, when they are hard, she's always faster.

When Susan was picking up the tins after the indoor searches, she noted that the odor was very faint.  Certainly enough for the dogs to detect, but the lack of air movement other than shoppers going by, would make it a tough search.  I don't remember when I last refreshed the q-tips in those tins.  I'll be setting these same hides on Wednesday for class - using all fresh q-tips and with 7 hour cook time.  So it will be interesting to see how that affects Gimme and Tucker in their searches.  The q-tips for the shed searches were all fresh, having only been used once.

You can see that she localizes one of the hides at 27 seconds...  she doesn't get up to it, but knows generally where it is.  The odor is up above the second shelf, in line with the support between shelving sections, so it could easily be pooling where she puts her nose under the lower shelf, still she didn't indicate there.  She brackets the second hide at 52 seconds.  It takes her 4:38 seconds to find the first hide.  She does get a bit frustrated 6 minutes into the search and throws a false alert at me...  given how quickly she leaves it, I'm certain she knew odor really wasn't there.  At 6:42 seconds I try to "make a corner" with my body to help her find the second hide, but it didn't seem to help.  If you watch carefully at 6:55, her tail wag speeds up (fast enough to strobe on the video) as she finally gets a real bead on the second hide - interestingly well above it.  She found both hides in 7:09.  That's a very long search - Tucker was just a little longer and would have quit if Susan and I hadn't helped him.

Gimme got sooooo close at 1:22, but didn't persist.  While this search was very long, Gimme never needed help or encouragement.  I'm sure she smelled it just enough to make her keep looking.  She never lacks for persistence.  She makes me think if the little boy optimist in an old joke, where he's placed in a room full of horse manure and when they come back hours later he's still happily digging away, just convinced that with all that manure, there has to be a pony in there somewhere.

That's Gimme's approach.  All she needs is success in the end - it doesn't matter to her how hard the challenge was, so long as she wins - she thrives on challenge.  

Another note... I did notice my handling sucked in this video.  I got stuck standing still frequently - especially when I knew she was pretty close to the hide.  Of course it doesn't help that the aisle was narrow and cluttered.  Fortunately I handle well enough most of the time that Gimme doesn't pay any attention - never having learned that I might cue her where it is by getting stuck myself.

We did another search, but ran out of space on my camera's disk.

Gimme had a bodywork treatment after class on Saturday.  I had noticed Gimme was willing to sit, though responding a bit slow, but she didn't want to stay seated unless the rate of reinforcement was high.  She was doing pop-up toaster sits.  Sure enough Tonya found both hips were out of whack, but her right hip was really locked up.  It was so bad she had to do the energy work first, so it would relax enough for her to do bodywork - otherwise it would have been very a forceful and painful adjustment.  So Gimme got energy work twice - once to release the hip and again at the end, as usual.  I did some TTouch and energy work later where Tonya said would need it.  I could really feel the heat from the inflammation when I started, but it would be almost normal by the time I was done.  Gimme is doing much better now.  I'm going to get her treated again this Saturday.

Public Dog (6) & NW Practice

I did get Gimme a bodywork treatment session yesterday and Tonya said she was better than before.  She thinks the energy work I've been doing is helping.  I was talking to my friend and she said they can start a false pregnancy well before the due date.  So, since I've confirmed Gimme has "fluffy boobies" - I'm chalking her weirdness up to her delicate condition.  I'm searching high and low for her baby lamb.

Yesterday in Public Dog class, she did not do well with the chaos of having 6 teams in that small space.  We played Doggie Tic Tac Toe again.  Gimme was mostly able to do her part - 5 out of 6 tries, but not to the standard we normally would do.  There was a practice round that ended up a draw, then four rounds.  They kept switching the teams around and even so, the team we were on won all four times.  So between Monday and yesterday, Gimme and I were victors each time - Doggie Tic Tac Toe CHAMPIONS...

The rounds were: LLW into a square and sit in the square with luring; butler style LLW into a square and sit in the square with luring; LLW into a square and sit in the square with food on us but no luring; and butler style LLW into a square and sit in the square with food on us but no luring. The leash had to remain in a J shape the whole time and we did it 4 out of 5 times, but it required a lot of me talking and helping her hold her position.  Once we were done and she got her treat, the moment I took one step toward our area - she was dragging me to get back to her sanctuary.

Tonight Susan and I met for a nosework practice on containers again.  We did eight rounds of searches with gradually increasing difficulty.  Gimme thoroughly enjoyed it - along with her marshmallow rewards.  Being false preggers does not affect her nosework ability.  She is contentedly snoozing as we speak.

Tucker did very nicely and I'll be eager to hear how he does this weekend - they are going to a match.  I did talk to Susan about possibly not coming to any container class with Joyce between now and her trial.  She didn't say whether she would or not.  I explained to her my reasoning and now its up to her to make a decision. 

Amazing...

Gimme got her bodywork treatment today.  Tonya didn't find anything that would affect the way she was sitting, but did find an area in mid-back that was seriously in need of correction.  It took a bit of doing to get it to move.  I'm sure that is a holdover from the reason she needed her first sessions last year.  So we'll be re-checking that in a couple of weeks and will be keeping an eye on it.

What happened next is where the title for this entry comes from.  Tonya also does energy work.  I am a huge fan of alternative medicine, but had never experienced any energy work.  Though, I've been told that when I do TTouch, I actually move energy (when I worked on a person that was sensitive to it)... but I don't know how that is happening.  TTouch isn't designed as energy work.

Anyway, I asked Tonya to check Gimme's energy and let me know if there was anything she could do to help her calm down.  Gimme is particularly wild this week.  She said that any calming affect wouldn't show up right away and might take more than one session. 

She checked Gimme and said her energy around her head, neck and shoulders were fine.  She said to that point she was very balanced.  Then about mid-back, right where her back was stuck, there was a small amount that she needed to work on. 

When she got farther back on her spine, her hands were just drawn to the hip and thigh of the leg that Gimme is holding oddly in her sits.  She said Gimme had a "huge ball of stuck energy" on the inside of that thigh.  Up to this point, Gimme had been her usual fidgety self.  But when Tonya started working that area to release that stuck energy, suddenly Gimme got very calm (at least compared to what she'd been like thirty seconds before).  She described the stuck energy as "very dark".  I asked her if that meant dark as in Darth Vader.  She said it means that it had been built up and stuck there for a long time.  She said the stuck energy isn't uncomfortable or painful in any way, but that it can make some things feel "unnatural". 

Anyway, when she finished, Gimme stood up and wagged her butt... and then offered a sit for the remaining treats.  The sit was flawless, everything in its right place and perfectly balanced!  I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

BTW cross your fingers and any body parts you can spare.  We leave at o'dark-thirty tomorrow to drive to Oregon for the ORT.