Agility Silly

We started the day with a 3.5 mile walk, which was bumped up for Gimme by a half mile run at the start.  She had fun running along in the grass.  It was a warm day, so we got good use of the water bottle/dish combo that I found among some things I've been sorting.  I've been thinking I should get one for our walks - who knew I must've had that thought before, eh.

Came home and I put a second coat of paint on the front porch.  I'd run out of the original color and they can't make it in this new kind of paint, so I selected a stronger blue/grey that goes along with the overall color pallet for the house.  Its a new kind of paint by Behr, designed for maximum coverage of cement/deck.  It's very thick paint (almost gel like) does cover nicely, but has a very strong ammonia smell.  I was worried that I might end up with a migraine, but I finished with the steps where I had good air flow, so that didn't happen.

Class was a good learning experience.  Gimme was pretty silly and not as focused as I know she can be.  That is at least partly because she hasn't been to class in nearly a month.  Still there were some really good moments. 

Her start line stays were mostly nice, especially given I purposely bumped up the distraction level.  Both times on the weaves she missed the first time, but when presented again from a couple obstacles back, she caught the entries and did a nice solid job.  Since we haven't practiced weaves since the last class, that's understandable.  Her contacts were 100%.  She did have a problem getting on the dogwalk the first couple of tries.  Blynn thinks an optical illusion was throwing her off, caused by the yellow tunnel passing right under the up-ramp and visually right behind the up-contact.  I continue to see a tendency for her to swing wide around a jump if its "inconvenient".  Blynn says she can do those jumps, but chooses not to.  I think is mostly a confidence issue and not entirely knowing her job.  So that is something we'll train at home, now that the yard is cleaned up and ready.  In the final exercises she did a nice call to tunnel from a start line even though we've never trained it.

I was most pleased that she had some good focus outside and was loose leash walking almost right away.  She wasn't phased at all by the gelding that was repeatedly stomping around, kicking and bucking, right where we had to walk by.  Since she used to have concerns about horses, I was pleased with her nonchalance. 

For our first turn, they changed the run order because one of the students injured herself and the student that was supposed to run between us and her, worked her dog for her.  So we didn't get the mental warm-up time that I was planning for. 

For her second turn, we were moving toward the arena as that team was finishing up and as we approached, the large black GSD left the lady handling it and came rushing toward the fence (not aggressive, just wanting to get to its Mom).  I was focused on Gimme and didn't see it coming, but fortunately someone yelled at me, so I was able to do an emergency u-turn.  We've practiced that so its not a huge deal for her.  Once we were in the arena, partway through our turn, they again lost control of the shepherd (behind a large barrier, but we could hear it).  Gimme left me to go check that out, but others ran interference, so there was no real issue.  However she did have to do a short zoomie before she could come back to work.  On a positive note - she was totally back with me when she did return and did some nice work.

So, while not our best class... there was still a lot to like.

Once home we settled in on the couch for a bit of TV and cuddle time.  Gimme often likes to lay belly up, having her chest and tummy rubbed - she definitely likes to have her boobies "fluffled".  This is one of the times in our days that I completely love and it occurred to me, if I could stop time and live forever in one moment - that would be it...

NW Practice

I intended to get in a practice yesterday, but I couldn't get to it before Public Dog class and I didn't think she had enough brain left to do it afterward.  Not wanting to do it close to trial day, I decided to do it tonight. I set up three inaccessible hides - one in my bedroom nightstand, one in a block of modeling clay on top of the faucet in the bathroom, and one stuck to the pan under the magic crate in the living room.  She did a nice job all around.

Gimme started by running all over scanning all the rooms one after the other and not settling down.  Partly I think this is because we haven't done searches at home in forever.  It may also be because I woke her out a sound asleep snooze to search, so she wasn't focused yet.  And lastly, because I let her.  After she had scanned each room twice, I used casual your-Mom-is-a-clutz-and-in-the-way body blocking to keep her in each room.

The first room she went in after I decided to block her was the bedroom.  I really thought she was going to find that one right away as she had her nose very near it early on.  The nightstand is right inside the door, so it was a threshold hide.  She never went into the walk-in closet at the far end of the room, where I've hidden odor before.  She got stuck on the edge of the door and even pawed at the doorknob twice.  I was not using gloves or tweezers and while I don't remember touching the door, I must have, transferring odor - bad me.  She finally found source though and got rewarded with a nice big chunk of chicken.

I closed the bedroom door as we left and she next went in the bathroom.  Since the hide was in the tub end that would be obscured by the door, I walked in and shut the door behind me.  Gimme found out pretty quickly that the odor was in the tub, but no way was she going in THERE.  As she focused her attention on the correct end of the tub I moved some things out of her way and she managed to streeeeetch her neck out to where the odor was and then just lifted her paw toward it.  It was awkward, so I accepted that as close enough and rewarded her close to odor.

Next we went to the living room and this time she trotted all around scanning the room.  On the third pass she found it and neatly pawed right on the front edge pointing exactly where the tin was hidden 6 inches in. 

An interesting note - I wondered how she would do with the bathroom hide, since she has developed a concern about that room.  I saw no sign that she even thought of it while she was in search mode.  I've continued my desensitizing program of just tossing treats on the floor in there from time to time.  She is tending to check it out more often.  We've done the peanut butter licking thing three times and one of them she stayed in the room afterward while I took a bath, even though the door was open enough for her to leave.  She used to always snooze on the big fluffly dog bed in there while I bathed.  I hope we get it back - I like seeing her contentedly snoozing nearby.

It occurs to me that I may freeshape her to get in and out of the tub on her own.  She never gets baths, so I'm sure she hasn't any lasting objection.  I used to keep my dogs' water bowl in the bathroom when I lived in Alabama (until they got too old to get in and out of the tub easily).  If it ran dry, Anthony would wait in the tub for me to refill it. 

Once I had a dinner party and had pulled the shower curtain to hide the stained grout.  All was going well and only one chicken fillet had been stolen, everyone was happy and having fun.  Suddenly there was a blood curdling scream coming from the bathroom.  It seems the bowl was empty and Anthony had been patiently waiting for a long time.  When someone came in and didn't reach in to turn on the tub and refill the bowl - he stuck his head out and goosed a bare bumm. 

Living with dogs is such great fun, doncha think...