When we got home from tracking, I had an email saying Gimme had passed her Novice RallyFrEe Skills title (R-FE/NS) with a nice score of 141 (out of 150). This is title number 65, just saying...
Gimme got eleven 10 point scores (out of 15). One of those was the Bow I worried so much about. The behaviors she got 10 points on were: Sit Stand, Down Stand, Prop Weave, Front Cross: Handler, Circle Around Counter-Clockwise, Clockwise Spin, Counter-Clockwise Spin, Thru to Left Heel, Thru to Right Heel, Figure-8 Thru 2x and Bow.
She lost 6 points on her 270 Left and 270 Right - which was totally my fault because I knew better and could have made a bigger circle. If you watch the sample videos on the RFE website, for the dog on the outside (how we did it), they are making the circle diameter about 1.5 to 3 feet. I absolutely made the 270 into a pivot. In the sample videos, for dog on the inside, they are making the diameter about 5-6' for dogs Gimme's size.
From the RFE website - sample video: 270 Left For some reason it won't let me copy the link for 270 Right, but if you watch the 270 Left, it's right above it on the playlist.
The other 3 points she lost were for "sniffing" my hand. On the Front Cross: Dog it was really obvious and we lost 2 points. For the Circle Around Clockwise the sniff was quicker so we only lost 1 point. I either need to train her better, or I could hold my hand higher so she can't sniff it. I laughed about the judge calling it a "sniff"... I know Gimme and would call it a reminder bump. I.E. an "I am here and you owe me treats" bump.
The judges comments were very nice. Do watch our Novice Skills Test video.
Showing posts with label RallyFrEe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RallyFrEe. Show all posts
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Saturday, September 17, 2016
RFE Practice (26)
On Thursday, 9/8, we met at Pawsabilities for RallyFrEe practice. My goal was to see where Gimme was mentally. During the last day of the tracking seminar the weekend before, I'd decided she was nearly out of the false pregnancy, but of course, that is tracking and its very different from RFE.
Session 1 video - We started with a couple of good reorients in the doorway, edited out because of glaring backlight. Noticed a strong tendency to heel wide, so I side-stepped away to encourage her to get closer. I did the same when she turned her attention away from me. I worked some changes of behavior (down, sit, stand) and change of position (heel, center, side). We also did a center front pivot, first time in quite awhile. I need to do a better job of pivoting in place, each time I moved about a foot to the side as I pivoted. Gimme was really confused about backing out of the center position from the pivot, we always back from center. She offers a lot of behaviors, which she does when she's confused. Bringing out the target pad helped quite a bit. I noticed she decided "side" can be with her butt swung out 45ยบ, so we worked on this too. My attempts to lure it didn't work well and just made her food focused instead of thinking. Maybe because I'd fallen back into food in my hands. She did well when moving, but swung the butt out every time we stopped. I notice she was doing setup in side position well, but the moment she stood - the butt went out. Interesting when we did the pivot with her at side, she kept alignment really good. I want to revisit "side" on the platform and with barriers at home and then without, as well as in the different behaviors, to reestablish the idea of alignment. She loved destroying the big red sock - a satisfying ripping sound really charges her up.
About backing: we've worked on fading the target at home and in the yard and she does a great job there. I think I need to fade the target in more locations. And I probably also need to do "back" directly after other behaviors more often, rather than as a stand alone.
Session 2 video - I started with focusing on her side position and more stepping away when she turned her attention away. We played at finding position using heel, side and center, sometimes with me moving. I did see when she is coming in wide I have a tendency to close the gap for her - bad me. I added in spins, turns, around, behind and thru - trying to reward good end positions. Then we added under (from behind me) which we haven't done in ages; I was pleased she remembered.
Session 3 video - Because the other two sessions had been longer than intended, I intended to make this one short, but it actually turned out to be more like what I'm aiming for - clearly my sense of time is skewed. What was left of the red sock was in my back pocket and Gimme pokes it with her nose at 1:00 (does the same in nosework class). Looking at this its clear she wasn't really focused, probably brain tired from the other sessions. There were a bunch of people coming, going and standing around the daycare door and someone running the vacuum - all big distractions. I do notice in this and the other videos - I had my shoulders out of alignment a lot of the time. It was really obvious when she was in "side" and I asked for a "turn" (spin from side) and she started to back around me, because she reads the shoulder turn as her cue to back in side/heel pivot toward her. I need to work on "spin" and "turn" from center, since she gives me "spin" regardless of which I cue. She did get it, but we need to have it more consistent (i.e. without reminder). She did well with around-under, but was inconsistent with behind-under. I finally realized it was because of how I was opening up the gap. Once I got my part right, behind-under was perfect.
At the time this was a rather frustrating session, but in looking over the videos with a critical eye - Gimme was actually doing well. We are miles ahead of where we've been following every other false pregnancy.
I think this coming week I want to review the early exercises Kathy gave me, to clean up Gimme's understanding and our performance. Then I know Kathy has some other exercises she wants to give me, which I hope we'll be ready for the time after.
Session 1 video - We started with a couple of good reorients in the doorway, edited out because of glaring backlight. Noticed a strong tendency to heel wide, so I side-stepped away to encourage her to get closer. I did the same when she turned her attention away from me. I worked some changes of behavior (down, sit, stand) and change of position (heel, center, side). We also did a center front pivot, first time in quite awhile. I need to do a better job of pivoting in place, each time I moved about a foot to the side as I pivoted. Gimme was really confused about backing out of the center position from the pivot, we always back from center. She offers a lot of behaviors, which she does when she's confused. Bringing out the target pad helped quite a bit. I noticed she decided "side" can be with her butt swung out 45ยบ, so we worked on this too. My attempts to lure it didn't work well and just made her food focused instead of thinking. Maybe because I'd fallen back into food in my hands. She did well when moving, but swung the butt out every time we stopped. I notice she was doing setup in side position well, but the moment she stood - the butt went out. Interesting when we did the pivot with her at side, she kept alignment really good. I want to revisit "side" on the platform and with barriers at home and then without, as well as in the different behaviors, to reestablish the idea of alignment. She loved destroying the big red sock - a satisfying ripping sound really charges her up.
About backing: we've worked on fading the target at home and in the yard and she does a great job there. I think I need to fade the target in more locations. And I probably also need to do "back" directly after other behaviors more often, rather than as a stand alone.
Session 2 video - I started with focusing on her side position and more stepping away when she turned her attention away. We played at finding position using heel, side and center, sometimes with me moving. I did see when she is coming in wide I have a tendency to close the gap for her - bad me. I added in spins, turns, around, behind and thru - trying to reward good end positions. Then we added under (from behind me) which we haven't done in ages; I was pleased she remembered.
Session 3 video - Because the other two sessions had been longer than intended, I intended to make this one short, but it actually turned out to be more like what I'm aiming for - clearly my sense of time is skewed. What was left of the red sock was in my back pocket and Gimme pokes it with her nose at 1:00 (does the same in nosework class). Looking at this its clear she wasn't really focused, probably brain tired from the other sessions. There were a bunch of people coming, going and standing around the daycare door and someone running the vacuum - all big distractions. I do notice in this and the other videos - I had my shoulders out of alignment a lot of the time. It was really obvious when she was in "side" and I asked for a "turn" (spin from side) and she started to back around me, because she reads the shoulder turn as her cue to back in side/heel pivot toward her. I need to work on "spin" and "turn" from center, since she gives me "spin" regardless of which I cue. She did get it, but we need to have it more consistent (i.e. without reminder). She did well with around-under, but was inconsistent with behind-under. I finally realized it was because of how I was opening up the gap. Once I got my part right, behind-under was perfect.
At the time this was a rather frustrating session, but in looking over the videos with a critical eye - Gimme was actually doing well. We are miles ahead of where we've been following every other false pregnancy.
I think this coming week I want to review the early exercises Kathy gave me, to clean up Gimme's understanding and our performance. Then I know Kathy has some other exercises she wants to give me, which I hope we'll be ready for the time after.
Friday, August 26, 2016
RFE Practice (25)
Up front - some this video is poor quality. I managed to get the camera to work a bit longer and the banging you hear is J'Anna "tapping" the camera when it starts to go south. I've already purchased a new camera, very similar but with some cool upgrades.
Session 1 video - There was a lot of screeching coming from the day care room, so Gimme was distracted by that. I thought she did very well. We had about three minutes of relaxing on the matt in the middle of the session (blue screen) while I set up the gates.
Session 2 video - Please notice her reaction now when the dog squeals in the day care room and compare it to just two weeks ago. I thought she did well. There are times when her attention is diverted, but she was trying to work with me and seemed to be having fun.
Session 3 video - For the third session I wanted to do different behaviors and keep it pretty active. We did a bunch of finding position and it went well. I've added finding "center" to the mix, since its a weak concept for her ever since her last seizure (March). You'll see at times she doesn't seem to be actually listening, throwing behaviors at me instead, but then goes "oh yahhh, Mom said..." and then gives me what I cued. I had her in "center" and asked her to back and she kept giving me "spin". I wasn't sure why, but I decided to give her a target to work with. She has a great back - always straight and as she does it a few times, it gets faster. I think its straight because we've always worked it with a target. We've never done "back" from "heel" or "side", so I was impressed with how quickly she put it together with only two helps - she's a damn-smart cookie. She only needed one help on the second side. The last time I told her "matt" and since we'd been working on "back", she backed up to the matt and then laid down, which wasn't really wrong.
Overall I was really pleased with her efforts. There were some focus/distraction issues, but she kept on trying. I see accuracy of "heel" and "side" position have fallen - she tending to go wide. There were times when she wasn't actually listening to my cues and just throwing behaviors at me. Still I compare this to where we've been during previous false pregnancies and I can't help but be very happy. I think I'll be able to push her more next time, get the accuracy back and then move on to other stuff. It'll be glorious to not have to back way up - instead we get to move on. Woo hoo...
Session 1 video - There was a lot of screeching coming from the day care room, so Gimme was distracted by that. I thought she did very well. We had about three minutes of relaxing on the matt in the middle of the session (blue screen) while I set up the gates.
Session 2 video - Please notice her reaction now when the dog squeals in the day care room and compare it to just two weeks ago. I thought she did well. There are times when her attention is diverted, but she was trying to work with me and seemed to be having fun.
Session 3 video - For the third session I wanted to do different behaviors and keep it pretty active. We did a bunch of finding position and it went well. I've added finding "center" to the mix, since its a weak concept for her ever since her last seizure (March). You'll see at times she doesn't seem to be actually listening, throwing behaviors at me instead, but then goes "oh yahhh, Mom said..." and then gives me what I cued. I had her in "center" and asked her to back and she kept giving me "spin". I wasn't sure why, but I decided to give her a target to work with. She has a great back - always straight and as she does it a few times, it gets faster. I think its straight because we've always worked it with a target. We've never done "back" from "heel" or "side", so I was impressed with how quickly she put it together with only two helps - she's a damn-smart cookie. She only needed one help on the second side. The last time I told her "matt" and since we'd been working on "back", she backed up to the matt and then laid down, which wasn't really wrong.
Overall I was really pleased with her efforts. There were some focus/distraction issues, but she kept on trying. I see accuracy of "heel" and "side" position have fallen - she tending to go wide. There were times when she wasn't actually listening to my cues and just throwing behaviors at me. Still I compare this to where we've been during previous false pregnancies and I can't help but be very happy. I think I'll be able to push her more next time, get the accuracy back and then move on to other stuff. It'll be glorious to not have to back way up - instead we get to move on. Woo hoo...
Friday, January 1, 2016
Urban Tracking (8) and RFE/N
On Christmas morning Nadine and I met at the theater for another urban tracking session. Still following the program outlined in Sil Sander's proposed new book, we were scheduled for two island hopping tracks of 100 and 120 yards. It was very cold - probably in the mid-30's and relatively dry. We let our tracks age for 15 minutes.
Gimme ran first and did a really nice job. Since we started using food drops which blend in with the surroundings, I see Gimme really getting down to business with her nose. Much of the time she goes right over the food drops without stopping - treats we leave for the birds. Its good to see the visual tendency going away - true of all the girls. There were a couple of places where she'd lose the track. I find her loss of track signs harder to see in urban than field work; its more subtle. Nadine thinks its really easy to see, but then she laid the track, so its always easier to see something when you know what is going on. I'm sure I'll catch it at some point. In any case, with Nadine there to tell me when to hold up, Gimme did a nice job working through the loss of track. I'm starting to think she may need me to hold her back more in urban than field tracking, perhaps so she doesn't overrun her nose. Or else I'm not doing as good of a job at line tension. Its something I'll be watching in coming urban practices.
The certificate for Gimme's RallyFrEe Novice title came in the mail. Here is beautiful Gimme posing with it.
Here's to a satisfying and successful 2016 for all our peeps. May your year be joyous...
Gimme ran first and did a really nice job. Since we started using food drops which blend in with the surroundings, I see Gimme really getting down to business with her nose. Much of the time she goes right over the food drops without stopping - treats we leave for the birds. Its good to see the visual tendency going away - true of all the girls. There were a couple of places where she'd lose the track. I find her loss of track signs harder to see in urban than field work; its more subtle. Nadine thinks its really easy to see, but then she laid the track, so its always easier to see something when you know what is going on. I'm sure I'll catch it at some point. In any case, with Nadine there to tell me when to hold up, Gimme did a nice job working through the loss of track. I'm starting to think she may need me to hold her back more in urban than field tracking, perhaps so she doesn't overrun her nose. Or else I'm not doing as good of a job at line tension. Its something I'll be watching in coming urban practices.
The certificate for Gimme's RallyFrEe Novice title came in the mail. Here is beautiful Gimme posing with it.Here's to a satisfying and successful 2016 for all our peeps. May your year be joyous...
Happy New Year
Monday, July 6, 2015
Nosework 6/10
Its been unbearably hot around here, so we've laid off a few of our regular activities. The other morning we went out to walk and in the space of 45 minutes, the temperature went up 12 degrees. Candy assures me our temperatures are nothing. She lives in Texas, so our blistering hot day time temps are just their cooled off night temps. Still Gimme and I aren't used to it, so we've slowed down off our regular activities. And we didn't go tracking last week because it was just too hot.
Before I talk about nosework class - I have some new information about our RallyFrEe videotaping. I didn't mention it in the blog, but Gimme kept getting distracted at the third station, going ahead of me toward the equipment against the wall. I didn't understand this, because she ignored the equipment everywhere else, against two full walls. Later I remembered Diane noting how Valor didn't want to go near the same section of wall - so it occurred to me they were sensing the same thing, just reacting different. So, I had Tonya ask Gimme about it. I had to picture it in my head so she'd know what I was talking about. Then she told Tonya there was a little mouse in there somewhere and it was distracting her. She volunteered her opinion about Valor, she said he's a big wussy for being scared of the little ole mouse. ☺
BTW this was the third of our special energy healing sessions aimed at repairing damage caused by the seizures. Tonya says Gimme is very aware of her memory issues and she's frustrated by it too.
Our first search was set up on these electrical boxes across the street, in the grass next to a sidewalk. The first three boxes from the startline were only about 2 feet apart and then the fourth one was further away. This put the hides 5 - 6 feet apart. Gimme was the only dog to find them in order from the startline. None of the dogs paid any attention to the fourth box. However, she really struggled sourcing the third (tallest) one. She knew there was a hide there, but kept looking for it on the shady side of the box. Dorothy thought it had to do with the proximity of the other hides, but this has never been an issue for her before. I thought it was because every time she came around and tried to get her nose up there, she was getting very bright sun straight in her eyes. When I got her to come around the other way, then she got it.
The second search was all underwater hides. There were 18 plastic containers, roughly the size of a dog water dish. Each had 2-3 inches of water in it; there were three hides. Gimme had no trouble with these, though she did lose her turn just after finding the first hide for peeing in the search area. She got taken to the van and had to wait until the other dogs had all run and then came back to try again.
Gimme had no difficulty finding all three hides. She was quite theatrical, showing repulsion for the spot where "somebody" peed in the search area. Everyone laughed at her. I took it as her effort to stay far away from the offending pee so she wouldn't succumb and repeat the baddie.
Before I talk about nosework class - I have some new information about our RallyFrEe videotaping. I didn't mention it in the blog, but Gimme kept getting distracted at the third station, going ahead of me toward the equipment against the wall. I didn't understand this, because she ignored the equipment everywhere else, against two full walls. Later I remembered Diane noting how Valor didn't want to go near the same section of wall - so it occurred to me they were sensing the same thing, just reacting different. So, I had Tonya ask Gimme about it. I had to picture it in my head so she'd know what I was talking about. Then she told Tonya there was a little mouse in there somewhere and it was distracting her. She volunteered her opinion about Valor, she said he's a big wussy for being scared of the little ole mouse. ☺
BTW this was the third of our special energy healing sessions aimed at repairing damage caused by the seizures. Tonya says Gimme is very aware of her memory issues and she's frustrated by it too.
Nosework class last week was a little short. It was verrrrrry hot, so we just had two quick searches in the shade.
Our first search was set up on these electrical boxes across the street, in the grass next to a sidewalk. The first three boxes from the startline were only about 2 feet apart and then the fourth one was further away. This put the hides 5 - 6 feet apart. Gimme was the only dog to find them in order from the startline. None of the dogs paid any attention to the fourth box. However, she really struggled sourcing the third (tallest) one. She knew there was a hide there, but kept looking for it on the shady side of the box. Dorothy thought it had to do with the proximity of the other hides, but this has never been an issue for her before. I thought it was because every time she came around and tried to get her nose up there, she was getting very bright sun straight in her eyes. When I got her to come around the other way, then she got it. The second search was all underwater hides. There were 18 plastic containers, roughly the size of a dog water dish. Each had 2-3 inches of water in it; there were three hides. Gimme had no trouble with these, though she did lose her turn just after finding the first hide for peeing in the search area. She got taken to the van and had to wait until the other dogs had all run and then came back to try again.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
RallyFrEe Videoing
The videoing did not go as well as I'd hoped. We did better than last time, but not stellar. I'm fairly certain it'll be a passing run - last time I didn't think we had any hope and only submitted it because I'd already paid for it and thought I'd at least get to see what the score sheet was like..
I thought Gimme would be comfortable and ready to work at Pawsabilities, since we'd been taking classes there for seven months; however, she wasn't ready to jump back in. We haven't had classes there since mid-April, so our perimeter walk took a long time. It didn't help she came in season on Thursday.
Gimme just seemed unfocused to me and at times asked for reassurance. The other dog is also reactive, but more stressy than Gimme. So it occurs to me she may have been affected by him, even though they didn't interact. Diane moved him outside to wait in the car when she was videoing me and Gimme. I'd done the same (had Gimme wait in the car) while videoing Diane and Valor.
We each started with individual warm-up and training and Gimme did pretty good at this, once she was done with the perimeter walk. She did need more reminders than she had when we last practiced at home. Then we each worked through the course a couple of times. I got Gimme's special bowl out and released her to it every 3-4-5 stations. She does love her special bowl and I think the activity of the mad dash to the special bowl makes the reward more fun.
After taping Diane and Valor, we switched and I brought Gimme in. I still didn't have the focus I know she is can have. I think the anticonvulsant screws with her focus (I'll know for sure in 6 weeks when I start reducing the dose). I'd hoped to be able to use "can" (pivot with rear feet on can) for one of our free choice behaviors, but Gimme just couldn't do it. I shouldn't have expected it - we need to take it on the road. So we did "love me" instead (paws up on my arm to give me kisses).
For the videoing, I set the bowl up well off the course and did a few stations and released her to it, to make sure she knew where it was. Then we did an entire course. She was really distracted, looking over to the bowl a few times. I know she thought she could/should be released to it any moment now. Once we got through a third of the stations, then she stopped looking over there, but seemed a bit frustrated. When I released her to the special bowl at the end, she found I'd put about thirty treats in there, plus I kept adding more as fast as she could gobble them up.
So with the knowledge of how good the payoff would be, she seemed to put a special effort into focusing for our second video. I chose the second video because she had better focus overall, despite a few bobbles here and there. I couldn't help but laugh when I cued "salute" at the end and she gave me "grape", not once, but twice. It is possible to get a qualifying score, despite messing up a station, and I weighed my options figuring the better heeling and focus would be more valuable than failing the last station.
Gimme loves to "grape" (roll over) and I think she just thought it needed to be in there somewhere. I'd love to use it as free choice behavior, but she likes doing it so much, if I ask for it, then she has a tendency to keep doing it no matter what else I cue. Obviously something I need to work on, eh.
I do see in reviewing the course and comparing it to the prior video and scoring, I'm still making the same handling mistakes. A big one is not pausing at the end of each station to show her getting back into "heel" or "side". This will cost us a lot of points. However, I had less lure-like hand motions.
Diane and I have plans for how to do it differently this November when the world wide video event happens. We hope to get to Pawsabilities for an extra practice session, separate from the videoing. Gimme and I will be back in class well before then, so she should be back into her working mindset. Diane is going to take a few of Kathy's classes with us, which will help her boy. Plus by then, I will have reduced Gimme's medication to the lowest amount and hopefully her laser beam focus will be back.
Well, time for bed...
I thought Gimme would be comfortable and ready to work at Pawsabilities, since we'd been taking classes there for seven months; however, she wasn't ready to jump back in. We haven't had classes there since mid-April, so our perimeter walk took a long time. It didn't help she came in season on Thursday.
Gimme just seemed unfocused to me and at times asked for reassurance. The other dog is also reactive, but more stressy than Gimme. So it occurs to me she may have been affected by him, even though they didn't interact. Diane moved him outside to wait in the car when she was videoing me and Gimme. I'd done the same (had Gimme wait in the car) while videoing Diane and Valor.
We each started with individual warm-up and training and Gimme did pretty good at this, once she was done with the perimeter walk. She did need more reminders than she had when we last practiced at home. Then we each worked through the course a couple of times. I got Gimme's special bowl out and released her to it every 3-4-5 stations. She does love her special bowl and I think the activity of the mad dash to the special bowl makes the reward more fun.
After taping Diane and Valor, we switched and I brought Gimme in. I still didn't have the focus I know she is can have. I think the anticonvulsant screws with her focus (I'll know for sure in 6 weeks when I start reducing the dose). I'd hoped to be able to use "can" (pivot with rear feet on can) for one of our free choice behaviors, but Gimme just couldn't do it. I shouldn't have expected it - we need to take it on the road. So we did "love me" instead (paws up on my arm to give me kisses).
For the videoing, I set the bowl up well off the course and did a few stations and released her to it, to make sure she knew where it was. Then we did an entire course. She was really distracted, looking over to the bowl a few times. I know she thought she could/should be released to it any moment now. Once we got through a third of the stations, then she stopped looking over there, but seemed a bit frustrated. When I released her to the special bowl at the end, she found I'd put about thirty treats in there, plus I kept adding more as fast as she could gobble them up.
So with the knowledge of how good the payoff would be, she seemed to put a special effort into focusing for our second video. I chose the second video because she had better focus overall, despite a few bobbles here and there. I couldn't help but laugh when I cued "salute" at the end and she gave me "grape", not once, but twice. It is possible to get a qualifying score, despite messing up a station, and I weighed my options figuring the better heeling and focus would be more valuable than failing the last station.
Gimme loves to "grape" (roll over) and I think she just thought it needed to be in there somewhere. I'd love to use it as free choice behavior, but she likes doing it so much, if I ask for it, then she has a tendency to keep doing it no matter what else I cue. Obviously something I need to work on, eh.
I do see in reviewing the course and comparing it to the prior video and scoring, I'm still making the same handling mistakes. A big one is not pausing at the end of each station to show her getting back into "heel" or "side". This will cost us a lot of points. However, I had less lure-like hand motions.
Diane and I have plans for how to do it differently this November when the world wide video event happens. We hope to get to Pawsabilities for an extra practice session, separate from the videoing. Gimme and I will be back in class well before then, so she should be back into her working mindset. Diane is going to take a few of Kathy's classes with us, which will help her boy. Plus by then, I will have reduced Gimme's medication to the lowest amount and hopefully her laser beam focus will be back.
Well, time for bed...
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
RallyFrEe and Nosework (5/10)
Last Friday I got the RallyFrEe novice course for the regional video competition. I was happy to see it doesn't include our weakest behavior. It really is a very doable course and I'm hopeful I can make a substantial improvement over our score from last time. I have found a video partner and we are renting the big room at Pawsabilities for 3 hours this Thursday. This will give us plenty of time to warm-up our dogs and take our time videoing our entries.
This morning Gimme and I had a great practice and its been one of the best since things deteriorated post-seizure. We did each behavior from the course (at least twice), as well as the four I've decided on for our Free Choice stations. Many of them Gimme did remember and was able to do on verbal, without needing a reminder first. Sure is good to see this coming back.
This morning Gimme and I had a great practice and its been one of the best since things deteriorated post-seizure. We did each behavior from the course (at least twice), as well as the four I've decided on for our Free Choice stations. Many of them Gimme did remember and was able to do on verbal, without needing a reminder first. Sure is good to see this coming back.
After the paw lifts (not included in the course) I was most worried about the sit-stand station, since we don't have it completely on a verbal. However, this morning Gimme nailed it on a verbal, though
we did have to repeat it several times to get her to stick the stand. She would
pop up into the stand and then just move forward, which would be points off,
though not as many as using a hand cue to get the stand.
We also did her "can" for the first time on the
actual can (step rear feet on a platform and then pivot around, keeping back feet on
platform). Its somewhat smaller diameter and twice as high as the practice can,
so we had to work on it a bit. She was tending to step one foot off, then back
on during the pivot, so we had to back up a little to get rid of the step off.
Oddly I still can't find the foam bottom for the can. I'm sure its around here somewhere, but can't spend the time looking for it, so I made another. Ron glued it on for me while Linda and I were quilting.
Nosework class tonight was a good one. We started out with a large interior search with six hides. Gimme was the fastest of the four dogs in class and she really liked having so many hides. There was another dog who was almost as fast as she was, but her owner does a lot of "guiding" the dog with her own movement. I always just follow Gimme, since I'd never know in a trial where to guide her, so I don't want her looking for hints from me.
From there we went to a four vehicle search, with two hides. One of them was really challenging, because the scent was kind of swirling around in a space between the four vehicles. Gimme caught the drift of this one really quickly and then just focused on it until she knew where source was. From there she went directly to the other one, even though she'd not gone anywhere near it before.
Then Dorothy moved the second hide to a place on another vehicle in an identical space as the first one. The idea was to see how these two rather similar vehicles, with a hide in the same location, made two completely different challenges. Both were white vans, but one was a minivan and the other was a extended full size which also sat higher off the ground. So the spacing around the tire and the wheel well was different, the tire size was different, and one sat higher off the ground and there was more air movement. The minivan had these "scoops" on the front bumper, while the full size had a solid bumper.
Gimme quickly found the hide on the full size. From there she went to check where the second hide was before, though I noticed her nose tilt toward the front end of the minivan as we went by it. After verifying it wasn't where it had been, she went straight to the front of the minivan and quickly got to source. Because she approached it from the front, she caught odor coming from the scoops and got to source much faster than the other dogs, who all approached it from the back of the vehicle.
So now our couch is calling us...
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Practice & Tracking Genius (9)
We are getting ready to enter the Western Regional RallyFrEe video event, so I'm trying to get in some practices. On Sunday when Gimme had her seizure, we were at DaPaws intending to practice, which obviously didn't happen. So Wednesday (yesterday) after work, I hustled us over to practice.
I set up a course of 10 behaviors and just worked them with a variable reward of 1-4 behaviors. I also set up her special bowl, then whatever the number was, if the behavior was reward-worthy I gave her the cue "yours" to run to the bowl and self-serve. Then I'd walk over and put treats in her special bowl. From there we'd walk back to where we left off and continue through to whatever number of behaviors was next on the random number list. Gimme did so well at this and was having fun. When I was sure she'd be okay with it, I did all ten behaviors, two-thirds of a novice course, and had already set up the special bowl with a lot of extra treats. Then went back to random with 1-4.
We took a break from course work to work on some other behaviors and played around with some other things. We ended with some more course work, going back to the 1-4 list. Our last behavior was one step of perfect off-side heeling.
Gimme was really trying hard and was eager to get back to work. I did notice she wasn't as quick to respond. It seemed to take her just a tad longer to respond to a cue. I've learned it can take 2-5 days to fully recover mental sharpness from a seizure episode, so I was aware I might see some evidence. I just encouraged her and rewarded a lot. I was most pleased to see her trying so hard even though she was having to put forth extra effort to stay focused.
Then last night we worked on her “one” behavior. I started awhile back with naming her paws 1-2-3-4. My goal is to at some point be able to cue a paw and add a verb to it. So “one paw” would mean to put her right front paw on whatever was presented, such as my foot or hand. Or “two high” would mean to lift her left front paw high and “two lift” would be to lift the paw off the ground, but not necessarily high like a high-five. So while this is the end goal, I realize we may never get there – verbs may simply be too advanced of a concept, even for my little genius. So for now “one” means the same as “one high”. I need paw raises for level one courses. Gimme thinks its just too easy. Tonight we’ll work on “two”.
I’m behind on reporting our tracking training, even though Nadine and I get together almost every week. Part of the reason I fall behind is because I want to show the map where applicable and it takes time to create it. Y’all would likely live without the map, but my blog also serves as our training record, so I'm making a special effort to get caught up.
I set up a practice track and Gimme did well on it. We are still having difficulty at this point trying to get her head down. Her tendency has always been to air scent and this will just not work well for tracking, whereas its fine in nosework and barn hunt.
This course was 505 yards, 4 articles on a sunny, cool day. Nadine laid three sharp turns as shown. Gimme had no trouble taking the sharp turns, but I did notice on the first and third articles, she tried to cut the corner and go directly to the nearby article (from the green dots). It was more noticeable for the third article because the direction of the breeze made it obvious, which was when I realized what was happening at the first turn.
Gimme sure loves tracking and I love watching her do her nosey thing...
I set up a course of 10 behaviors and just worked them with a variable reward of 1-4 behaviors. I also set up her special bowl, then whatever the number was, if the behavior was reward-worthy I gave her the cue "yours" to run to the bowl and self-serve. Then I'd walk over and put treats in her special bowl. From there we'd walk back to where we left off and continue through to whatever number of behaviors was next on the random number list. Gimme did so well at this and was having fun. When I was sure she'd be okay with it, I did all ten behaviors, two-thirds of a novice course, and had already set up the special bowl with a lot of extra treats. Then went back to random with 1-4.
We took a break from course work to work on some other behaviors and played around with some other things. We ended with some more course work, going back to the 1-4 list. Our last behavior was one step of perfect off-side heeling.
Gimme was really trying hard and was eager to get back to work. I did notice she wasn't as quick to respond. It seemed to take her just a tad longer to respond to a cue. I've learned it can take 2-5 days to fully recover mental sharpness from a seizure episode, so I was aware I might see some evidence. I just encouraged her and rewarded a lot. I was most pleased to see her trying so hard even though she was having to put forth extra effort to stay focused.
Then last night we worked on her “one” behavior. I started awhile back with naming her paws 1-2-3-4. My goal is to at some point be able to cue a paw and add a verb to it. So “one paw” would mean to put her right front paw on whatever was presented, such as my foot or hand. Or “two high” would mean to lift her left front paw high and “two lift” would be to lift the paw off the ground, but not necessarily high like a high-five. So while this is the end goal, I realize we may never get there – verbs may simply be too advanced of a concept, even for my little genius. So for now “one” means the same as “one high”. I need paw raises for level one courses. Gimme thinks its just too easy. Tonight we’ll work on “two”.
I’m behind on reporting our tracking training, even though Nadine and I get together almost every week. Part of the reason I fall behind is because I want to show the map where applicable and it takes time to create it. Y’all would likely live without the map, but my blog also serves as our training record, so I'm making a special effort to get caught up.
I set up a practice track and Gimme did well on it. We are still having difficulty at this point trying to get her head down. Her tendency has always been to air scent and this will just not work well for tracking, whereas its fine in nosework and barn hunt.
Gimme sure loves tracking and I love watching her do her nosey thing...
Friday, April 24, 2015
RallyFrEe (6/4)
Gimme wasn't her best self yesterday. I noticed right away it took her much longer in our periphery walk to give me her attention. We walked the same area several times. Fortunately I'd gotten there early, so had plenty of time.
1. Right Heel Forward
2. CW Spin - Thru Trx to Left
3. Handler Front Cross - Dog Front Cross
4. 270ยบ Left Turn
5. Free Choice Into to Right
6. CCW Circle
7. Right Turn Circle Trx
8. Thru Trx to Left
9. CCW Spin
10. Free Choice
11. Switch Back
12. Bow
We started by discussing our Free Choice moves and Kathy talked about what constitutes a Free Choice vs. a sequence (not acceptable). She also differentiated Free Choice signs from Free Choice Into signs. There are no extra points for creativity/difficulty with Free Choice Into signs, so you should always do something simple, choosing a move you can execute well. We each had to identify the Free Choice move we'd be using on this course.
I was going to use what I call "the Move". It is a short sequence, but Kathy said it would not be an unacceptable sequence. Starting from heel it would be: CW Circle, Circle Left Leg, Thru, CCW Circle, Circle Right Leg and Thru to finish. It normally goes very smoothly. However, when it came for our turn to demonstrate our free choice - Gimme just couldn't focus enough to do it. She kept offering other stuff and generally flailing around without paying attention to the cues I was giving her. She couldn't even follow a lure well.
She was getting frustrated, so not wanting to go there, I told Kathy we'd do our Twizzle instead. I don't have a cue for Twizzle, its just me pivoting toward Gimme in place (either side, but better at heel), while Gimme skip/heels backward around me, staying in "heel" or "side" position. This Gimme was able to do very well, with enthusiasm, to a lot of applause and flattering comments. Its very cute.
When it came time for us to do the course shown above, Gimme was still having trouble focusing and was again concerned about having people behind her at the start. So, instead of trying to set up with our back to our classmates, I heeled in from the side, turned and went to get her past it quickly. I started with C/T every other step and every sign, so about halfway through I had her tuned in to the Carla Channel.
She did well through to the end, with the exception of the Switch Back, when she wanted to do the Twizzle again. Partly this is due to her being oversensitive to any shoulder rotation since she so likes this move, so I need to practice Twizzle without any shoulder and probably should put it on a verbal cue. We worked through it and she did fine. As a reward I started throwing treats back and forth for her. This really got her excited and focused on me with glowing intense expression. In hindsight I should have gotten her to do something good before starting the course and then thrown treats, or picked something in mid-course to throw treats for. This led to the discussion about engaging the dog's seeking circuit.
As I said in yesterday's blog about nosework, this was all caused by me running out of Sepia, so she had to go without for three days. Gimme got her first dose last night and got much better right away. She is calmly waiting for breakfast as we speak...
I do have to say, even with her lack of focus, she was still the best in class. All the other dogs had to work on leash or they'd wander away. Gimme is just generally wonderful and also better trained, so she starts from a place of greater capability. Just sayin... And sadly, this was our last RallyFrEe class for several months. We may get together with Kathy on occasion like a mini-workshop, but no weekly classes. <sigh>
Monday, March 2, 2015
RallyFrEe (4/3)
I didn't get this written sooner because we went to a seminar all weekend and I had lots of things to do before we left at the crack of dawn.
We practiced at DaPaws Wednesday night and it went really well. Gimme had a lot of fun and out of our 30 minute session, we got over 20 minutes working. We started with the perimeter walk. Then worked for awhile practicing all kinds of behaviors. Then I let Gimme take a break of a couple minutes. Then we worked some more. Chris showed up and I let Gimme take a break to visit. Then we ended with a couple minutes of work with Chris there, showing off some new moves we've been working on. Gimme loves her, but we really need to get past having to stop when she shows up, so at some point I need to get Chris to help me by being our distraction of the day.
RallyFrEe class last Thursday was all about proofing distractions. When I came in, Kathy told me to take Gimme directly to her crate without our usual perimeter walk. I was kinda panicked because I know how important it is for Gimme to acclimate to the building each time if I want focus from her.
Kathy talked to us about the day's focus - dealing with distractions. Our exercise was a line of four wads of paper towels, set up as if they were a prop weave exercise. I didn't really think Gimme would be very distracted by them - boy was I wrong. The points she made during discussion were:
* how important it is to have a start-work cue
* how important it is to have an end-work cue
* the best way to deal with distractions is to teach the dog
to view the distraction as a cue to look at you
So we each had to tell her what our start-work and end-work cues are. Start-work for Gimme is "setup". This is simply a behavior where she sits in heel position with rapt attention. I even have her do it before right side heeling - starting with her "setup" on the left, then move to the right "side" to begin. I do this because I don't want her to default to a sit in "side" position, since we'll never need it there and on the times when I do, I can give her a verbal cue. I don't really have an end-work cue, so have decided to use "all done".
After the discussion Kathy let us do our perimeter walk for 2½ minutes, provided we didn't include the area of the distraction exercise in the walk. Gimme is getting faster and faster at turning her attention to me in the perimeter walks. The first time I did it at DaPaws it took 15 minutes, now Gimme is working me with offered attention in under 2 minutes. Our first time at Pawsabilities where we take RallyFrEe classes was about 10 minutes and now she's usually done well before we've gone halfway around the room. She doesn't seem to need as much time, but she still needs some.
Then we did exercises working around the distractions in ever increasing difficulty. Kathy says if you do this with enough different things, over time the dog will view the distractions as a cue to look to you for reward. The exercises in order were:
1 -- Start with the start-work cue, then walk the dog by the distraction with enough
distance so the dog couldn’t get to the distraction. If the dog stopped to look,
we stopped with them and moved on when they were ready. We let the dogs
look and sniff toward the distraction and click/treat for any offered attention.
Finish with the end-work cue.
2 -- Start with the start-work cue, then cue “heel” and walk the dog somewhat
toward the distraction, still with enough distance so the dog can’t get to it.
If the dog stops working, i.e. leaves heel position, then gently move away
(no leash correction) and restart. Dogs can look, but need to stay with us.
We click/treat for heeling, aiming to get a steady stream of treats. Finish
with the end-work cue.
3 -- Start with the start-work cue, then cue “heel” and walk the dog closer to the
distraction, but still with enough distance so the dog can’t get to it. If the
dog stops working, i.e. leaves heel position, then gently move away (no
leash correction) and restart. Dogs got clicked for staying in heel position
and maintaining attention. Finish with the end-work cue.
4 -- Start with the start-work cue, then cue “heel” and walk the dog ever closer to
the distraction. Move away if you need to and click treat for staying in heel
position and maintaining attention. Finish with the end-work cue.
Gimme did very well with all of them, though she was quite intrigued with the paper towel balls at first. Who knew? By the end of the fourth exercise Gimme was able to heel right over the distraction without looking at it. This was much more than the other dogs were able to do. Gimme figures out distraction training very quickly. During this class her tail was wagging the whole time, so she was having fun and I clearly had the right level of incrementation. It was always like this in our classes with Ursula, she had to wrack her brain to come up with new distractions because Gimme had figured out the drill and you couldn't suck her in with the same thing a second time. This worked nicely, so I plan to start including distraction training in our sessions at the tennis courts and at DaPaws. I think Gimme will enjoy the challenge.
Then Kathy helped each of us with one thing we wanted to focus on. I elected to work on Gimme's right "side" heeling. This week we introduced stopping in position with me. At first Kathy had me stop, click immediately (before Gimme could get out of position) and then toss the treat. After several repetitions of this, she had me stop, click for stopping, treat in position, then click for her staying there and toss this treat. We also did some instances of leaving Gimme in a "wait" walking two steps and calling her into "side". Initially she was clicked and the treat tossed, then we went to the variation of click/treat in position followed by a click in position and tossed treat. The idea is to keep this a very fun game, so Gimme really wants to be in "side" because the game could begin at any moment.
Kathy is talking about moving this class to Sunday mornings. I hope she doesn't for a bunch of reasons. We'd still continue with her, but it would be a big inconvenience and suck a lot of extra time out of our week. Cross your fingers...
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Nosework (6/6) & Workshop
We've been busy for the last few days. I bought a tree-stand platform at Home Depot and my neighbor (the guy who does my remodeling) helped me modify it to take care of the two things Kathy suggested about my props. So Gimme and I have been working on "orbit", "cane" and "can" as much as we can. She's having difficulty getting the difference in direction between "orbit" and "cane" and so I've started training them in different sessions. She didn't seem to have the same problem when I taught "spin" and "turn" in the same sessions, but I was using luring to teach them, so I think it helped her know which is which.
On Saturday after I taught pet classes, Gimme and I went for a walk. When we came back, no one was using the arena, so I did a quick session there. Gimme hadn't been in this arena for about a year, so she was really distracted to begin with. I just gave her the time she needed to acclimate and clicked/treated when she was close. I was beginning to think it wasn't going to be a good session, when suddenly she turned on and we had a fabulous session. I'm seeing this trend with her lately where she is totally focused when she is ready. Before it was a more gradual to go from the acclimatizing process to ready to work - now its almost like flipping a switch. This could possibly be the extra training we've been doing, but I also think it could be due to the recent flower essence remedy changes.
Sunday we attended a 2-hour NW3 workshop. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was looking forward to learning a lot. Unfortunately Gimme did not do her best searching, though some was really good.
The first search was a container search with lots of distraction and she did really well with it. After we found the four hides, Dorothy had us continue to walk our dogs around, basically being the dumb handler. The idea was to have the dog still only commit to real odor and not suck into alerting just to make us happy. Gimme did well. The second search was an exterior and Gimme was brilliant. I think she was much faster and more accurate than the other dogs I watched.
As I was walking her back to the car I went by a patch of wet shiny pavement and a splash of reflected sunlight hit me directly in my right eye - instant migraine. It came and went for the rest of the day. Our two interior searches were minutes later and Gimme didn't do as well for these as I would have expected. She couldn't get one and really struggled with an easy hide she's seen before. At the time I didn't understand was was going on, but in hindsight, I'm sure it was my migraine. I've seen before where she isn't as able to focus when I'm in pain.
Our third time was a vehicle search and where they had it set up was in deep shade, so the migraine abated a LOT and Gimme did much better. There were three vehicles lined up in a row and we had three minutes to find the hides. We were allowed no more than 1 minute per vehicle and once you left a vehicle, even if early, you couldn't come back to it. Gimme found the first hide fairly easy and so I walked her around it again with our remaining time. Just as we were about to get to the back bumper our one minute was up and we had to move on. Gimme found nothing on the second vehicle and wasn't even particularly interested in it - we walked around it twice. On the third, a long trailer, Gimme found a hide on the far side and then was showing a lot of interest on the top of the trailer. She could only get her front feet and nose up there, but kept walking the edge checking. After we were done Dorothy asked me where I thought there might be more. I said it was possible there was an inaccessible hide high on the trailer, but it could also be because air was moving from the hide-side under the trailer, then hitting a nearby wall and curling back on the trailer. She agreed with my assessment and then said the other hide was on the back bumper of the first vehicle - the one we ran out of time on. Gimme had sniffed it briefly on our first approach, but didn't indicate.
Try as I might to stay out of or face away from the sun, I still got eye-zapped several more times from reflective surfaces. I walked to the last search (exterior) staying in the shade, but then had to cross through sun again. By this time the migraine had really geared up. Gimme searched and found one hide really nicely. After it, she then got stuck fringing 12 feet from source, which is not like her at all. So again, I think she was distracted by my pain. Dorothy had us walk back and forth between the two small wood spools (one had odor, the other fringe). When she indicated the right one she was rewarded, when she stuck on the fringing one - nothing. This let Gimme sort it out for herself.
Last night in class we got 1 search, with 8 minutes to find as many hides as we could! The room had been set up this way all day, so there was a ton of odor. Of the eight dogs in our class, all but one found ten hides. Little blind, arthritic and slow-moving, deaf Hallie found eight hides. It was interesting to watch all the dogs go through this process. They each came in and found one or two hides pretty quickly, then they'd get kind of overwhelmed by how much odor was in the room. You could see in their behavior they just didn't believe there could be this much and weren't sure what to do. But then each dog would just hunker down and bring on their A-game to really focus and puzzle through the converging odor challenges.
Gimme could have been the dog to get 11 hides, but I messed her up. She went in the bathroom and sniffed around the edge, spending a little extra time on a heat vent on the wall. Then she went up on the sink and indicated the paper towel dispenser with enthusiasm - she really loves high hides best, as long as she can reach them. I rewarded her and then just left the bathroom. After all, everyone knows there is only going to be one in such a small space - except there was another in the heat vent. If I had waited and let Gimme be the one to make the decision to stay or leave, she likely would have gotten the second hide. Its common for dogs facing a converging odor challenge to find both without indicating, then indicate them one by one. So she might have gotten the 2nd one if I hadn't drawn her out of the bathroom by leaving it myself.
Since converging odor puzzles take extra time to work through, its interesting the time average per hide was 48 seconds for each of the dogs (except Hallie). I've always known she has good persistence. From her behavior, I'm sure Gimme would have found all fourteen if she'd had enough the time.
On Saturday after I taught pet classes, Gimme and I went for a walk. When we came back, no one was using the arena, so I did a quick session there. Gimme hadn't been in this arena for about a year, so she was really distracted to begin with. I just gave her the time she needed to acclimate and clicked/treated when she was close. I was beginning to think it wasn't going to be a good session, when suddenly she turned on and we had a fabulous session. I'm seeing this trend with her lately where she is totally focused when she is ready. Before it was a more gradual to go from the acclimatizing process to ready to work - now its almost like flipping a switch. This could possibly be the extra training we've been doing, but I also think it could be due to the recent flower essence remedy changes.
Sunday we attended a 2-hour NW3 workshop. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was looking forward to learning a lot. Unfortunately Gimme did not do her best searching, though some was really good.
The first search was a container search with lots of distraction and she did really well with it. After we found the four hides, Dorothy had us continue to walk our dogs around, basically being the dumb handler. The idea was to have the dog still only commit to real odor and not suck into alerting just to make us happy. Gimme did well. The second search was an exterior and Gimme was brilliant. I think she was much faster and more accurate than the other dogs I watched.
As I was walking her back to the car I went by a patch of wet shiny pavement and a splash of reflected sunlight hit me directly in my right eye - instant migraine. It came and went for the rest of the day. Our two interior searches were minutes later and Gimme didn't do as well for these as I would have expected. She couldn't get one and really struggled with an easy hide she's seen before. At the time I didn't understand was was going on, but in hindsight, I'm sure it was my migraine. I've seen before where she isn't as able to focus when I'm in pain.
Our third time was a vehicle search and where they had it set up was in deep shade, so the migraine abated a LOT and Gimme did much better. There were three vehicles lined up in a row and we had three minutes to find the hides. We were allowed no more than 1 minute per vehicle and once you left a vehicle, even if early, you couldn't come back to it. Gimme found the first hide fairly easy and so I walked her around it again with our remaining time. Just as we were about to get to the back bumper our one minute was up and we had to move on. Gimme found nothing on the second vehicle and wasn't even particularly interested in it - we walked around it twice. On the third, a long trailer, Gimme found a hide on the far side and then was showing a lot of interest on the top of the trailer. She could only get her front feet and nose up there, but kept walking the edge checking. After we were done Dorothy asked me where I thought there might be more. I said it was possible there was an inaccessible hide high on the trailer, but it could also be because air was moving from the hide-side under the trailer, then hitting a nearby wall and curling back on the trailer. She agreed with my assessment and then said the other hide was on the back bumper of the first vehicle - the one we ran out of time on. Gimme had sniffed it briefly on our first approach, but didn't indicate.
Try as I might to stay out of or face away from the sun, I still got eye-zapped several more times from reflective surfaces. I walked to the last search (exterior) staying in the shade, but then had to cross through sun again. By this time the migraine had really geared up. Gimme searched and found one hide really nicely. After it, she then got stuck fringing 12 feet from source, which is not like her at all. So again, I think she was distracted by my pain. Dorothy had us walk back and forth between the two small wood spools (one had odor, the other fringe). When she indicated the right one she was rewarded, when she stuck on the fringing one - nothing. This let Gimme sort it out for herself.
Last night in class we got 1 search, with 8 minutes to find as many hides as we could! The room had been set up this way all day, so there was a ton of odor. Of the eight dogs in our class, all but one found ten hides. Little blind, arthritic and slow-moving, deaf Hallie found eight hides. It was interesting to watch all the dogs go through this process. They each came in and found one or two hides pretty quickly, then they'd get kind of overwhelmed by how much odor was in the room. You could see in their behavior they just didn't believe there could be this much and weren't sure what to do. But then each dog would just hunker down and bring on their A-game to really focus and puzzle through the converging odor challenges.
Gimme could have been the dog to get 11 hides, but I messed her up. She went in the bathroom and sniffed around the edge, spending a little extra time on a heat vent on the wall. Then she went up on the sink and indicated the paper towel dispenser with enthusiasm - she really loves high hides best, as long as she can reach them. I rewarded her and then just left the bathroom. After all, everyone knows there is only going to be one in such a small space - except there was another in the heat vent. If I had waited and let Gimme be the one to make the decision to stay or leave, she likely would have gotten the second hide. Its common for dogs facing a converging odor challenge to find both without indicating, then indicate them one by one. So she might have gotten the 2nd one if I hadn't drawn her out of the bathroom by leaving it myself.
Since converging odor puzzles take extra time to work through, its interesting the time average per hide was 48 seconds for each of the dogs (except Hallie). I've always known she has good persistence. From her behavior, I'm sure Gimme would have found all fourteen if she'd had enough the time.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Agility (7/5)
I know the numbering on this class is strange, but Blynn seems to think we haven't finished this round and according to my records we have. I've taken my time before blogging about class on Thursday. It was frustrating and inconsistent and I wanted to think about it.
Our first round was an unmitigated disaster. I never had Gimme's attention for more than a few seconds. I knew she wasn't hurting because we had a session with Tonya the day before and she said she was back to usual physically, though she did put a lot more clean energy in her. Tonya left at the crack of dawn this morning for vacation, so I wanted to be sure we had a "last minute" fine tuning, given the recent discombobulation.
There are a lot of reasons why our first run was so bad. First we didn't have much warning knowing we were next. Then there was a new person loitering between both doors with her St. Bernard, so we couldn't get in the foyer for our usual brain-warm-up. Instead we stood in the dark under the trees. They only moved when the other team came out and told them to move so we could come in (they were ignoring me, being focused on what was happening inside the arena). As it turned out, a returning student had forgotten where to crate her dog, so we couldn't have used the area to warm-up anyway. Then we get in for our turn and someone had dropped a bunch of hotdog pieces on the floor in three different places. I finally had Gimme's attention and we were supposed to come off the dogwalk for a 90 degree right turn to the weaves, except the lady with the St. Bernard is back, standing right next to the barrier at our 11 o'clock. <SIGH> The whole round was a waste of time - i.e. nothing positive gained from it.
At one point Blynn said something to me and I grumbled about the "quart of food" on the ground. I was very frustrated and likely spoke sharply because of it. Later Blynn talked to me and asked me not to "bark" at her. I didn't remember doing it and certainly didn't intend it, but I figure this is what she meant. Along with an apology, I said I hadn't intended to bark at her, but I was frustrated with Gimme and I'm sure it showed up in my tone. To which she commented, she thought I was going to have a lot of frustration "as long as the sun and moon have to be in perfect alignment to get Gimme to work with you".
To say the least, I was stunned by this assessment. Gimme loves to train and tries hard. She has issues and so she does have needs which must be met, but I don't think they are unreasonable. In thinking about this, I think Blynn is making a general assessment covering the last few months. Think about it, I was "broken" for about 4 months starting back in April and how I was doing surely affected Gimme. And now with this recurrence of her barn hunt injury, Gimme has been broken for more than a month. There have been times in there when she was brilliant, but I think Blynn is only seeing one long pattern of inconsistent performance.
I don't think we need perfect cosmic alignment for her to do well. For instance, for our next session, I was told at the last moment we would be up first. I cut my walk through short (never getting to the end), got Gimme from the car, potty walked her briefly, stepped in the foyer and had about a minute to do our warm-up game, then on the course for a near flawless performance. I had her attention the whole time and there was only one place where she erred. I didn't know all of the course, but Gimme went everywhere I sent her and her one mistake could have been my fault - I'll know when I get the video.
In thinking this over, in hindsight, it probably would have been better to take a few months off when my hand problem started. I don't think the time was a waste, but it may have contributed less than great agility training to our history. I've decided for the next couple of months to go back to basics. I'll practice heeling to the startline, practice more of Mecklenburg's six recall-to-heel behaviors, and go back to treating every few obstacles. I may work with the course laid out, but getting through it won't be my aim. I also have some ideas about working through the food shopping and starting work on the reactivity, I'll be using our "whazzat" a lot.
I know my plans will work, I just have to work through them and not let myself be lured into doing the course without the basics in place. Blynn would want me to be stricter with Gimme, but its not my style and for heaven's sake, she's not a Border Collie. So, I'm not going to take Blynn's comment personally, though it sure felt personal when she said it. Instead I'm going to take it as a challenge to get back on plan with my brilliant girl. She doesn't have to be brilliant all the time. Still, I do want to see the less than brilliant moments in the "damn good" category. ☺
I don't think I've mentioned I have signed up for a Rally FrEe course on Tuesday nights, starting in October. The class is in Lynnwood, so it will be a long drive, 1:15 going up and probably longer coming back due to rush hour traffic.
Now I'm going to start packing the car and then we'll leave for the drive to our hotel in Clackamas, Oregon. We have two element trials on Sunday, for containers (AM) and exteriors (PM). I'm not as confident with containers because it'll be a field of boxes and we'll be doing them four times. Gimme tends to get more and more stimulated each time she sees boxes, so she could revert to demolition mode. I think it'll go smoother when we get to level 2 container element and then the search will have a mix of containers, not just boxes. I'm certain we'll do well with the exterior element. In any case, cross any body parts you can spare.
Our first round was an unmitigated disaster. I never had Gimme's attention for more than a few seconds. I knew she wasn't hurting because we had a session with Tonya the day before and she said she was back to usual physically, though she did put a lot more clean energy in her. Tonya left at the crack of dawn this morning for vacation, so I wanted to be sure we had a "last minute" fine tuning, given the recent discombobulation.
There are a lot of reasons why our first run was so bad. First we didn't have much warning knowing we were next. Then there was a new person loitering between both doors with her St. Bernard, so we couldn't get in the foyer for our usual brain-warm-up. Instead we stood in the dark under the trees. They only moved when the other team came out and told them to move so we could come in (they were ignoring me, being focused on what was happening inside the arena). As it turned out, a returning student had forgotten where to crate her dog, so we couldn't have used the area to warm-up anyway. Then we get in for our turn and someone had dropped a bunch of hotdog pieces on the floor in three different places. I finally had Gimme's attention and we were supposed to come off the dogwalk for a 90 degree right turn to the weaves, except the lady with the St. Bernard is back, standing right next to the barrier at our 11 o'clock. <SIGH> The whole round was a waste of time - i.e. nothing positive gained from it.
At one point Blynn said something to me and I grumbled about the "quart of food" on the ground. I was very frustrated and likely spoke sharply because of it. Later Blynn talked to me and asked me not to "bark" at her. I didn't remember doing it and certainly didn't intend it, but I figure this is what she meant. Along with an apology, I said I hadn't intended to bark at her, but I was frustrated with Gimme and I'm sure it showed up in my tone. To which she commented, she thought I was going to have a lot of frustration "as long as the sun and moon have to be in perfect alignment to get Gimme to work with you".
To say the least, I was stunned by this assessment. Gimme loves to train and tries hard. She has issues and so she does have needs which must be met, but I don't think they are unreasonable. In thinking about this, I think Blynn is making a general assessment covering the last few months. Think about it, I was "broken" for about 4 months starting back in April and how I was doing surely affected Gimme. And now with this recurrence of her barn hunt injury, Gimme has been broken for more than a month. There have been times in there when she was brilliant, but I think Blynn is only seeing one long pattern of inconsistent performance.
I don't think we need perfect cosmic alignment for her to do well. For instance, for our next session, I was told at the last moment we would be up first. I cut my walk through short (never getting to the end), got Gimme from the car, potty walked her briefly, stepped in the foyer and had about a minute to do our warm-up game, then on the course for a near flawless performance. I had her attention the whole time and there was only one place where she erred. I didn't know all of the course, but Gimme went everywhere I sent her and her one mistake could have been my fault - I'll know when I get the video.
In thinking this over, in hindsight, it probably would have been better to take a few months off when my hand problem started. I don't think the time was a waste, but it may have contributed less than great agility training to our history. I've decided for the next couple of months to go back to basics. I'll practice heeling to the startline, practice more of Mecklenburg's six recall-to-heel behaviors, and go back to treating every few obstacles. I may work with the course laid out, but getting through it won't be my aim. I also have some ideas about working through the food shopping and starting work on the reactivity, I'll be using our "whazzat" a lot.
I know my plans will work, I just have to work through them and not let myself be lured into doing the course without the basics in place. Blynn would want me to be stricter with Gimme, but its not my style and for heaven's sake, she's not a Border Collie. So, I'm not going to take Blynn's comment personally, though it sure felt personal when she said it. Instead I'm going to take it as a challenge to get back on plan with my brilliant girl. She doesn't have to be brilliant all the time. Still, I do want to see the less than brilliant moments in the "damn good" category. ☺
I don't think I've mentioned I have signed up for a Rally FrEe course on Tuesday nights, starting in October. The class is in Lynnwood, so it will be a long drive, 1:15 going up and probably longer coming back due to rush hour traffic.
Now I'm going to start packing the car and then we'll leave for the drive to our hotel in Clackamas, Oregon. We have two element trials on Sunday, for containers (AM) and exteriors (PM). I'm not as confident with containers because it'll be a field of boxes and we'll be doing them four times. Gimme tends to get more and more stimulated each time she sees boxes, so she could revert to demolition mode. I think it'll go smoother when we get to level 2 container element and then the search will have a mix of containers, not just boxes. I'm certain we'll do well with the exterior element. In any case, cross any body parts you can spare.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Nosework (6/13)
We met at Diane's house tonight for class. We did two exterior searches and one indoors. I honestly had no idea of what to expect from my little "expectant mother". I figure she is "due" any day now - caught her examining the floor of the closet this morning and she's getting more emotional by the moment. She's been very needy and has to be with me every moment. Usually she naps on the couch while I'm on the computer, but tonight she is right here with me.
Despite my concerns, she did really well. Her first search she was a bit less focused than normal, but still did great finding both hides in the exterior very quickly. One was in a garden hose caddy, tucked under the edge of the hose. The other was in a pen cap stuck into the ground and covered with bark dust.
The second search was in Diane's tiny garage - good thing she has a sports car or you couldn't get in or out of the car. A couple of the dogs found this space disturbing - it was really crowded and the lighting was very dark at one end. Gimme didn't have any problem with that. She found where the NW1 level hide had been, but had difficulty finding the inaccessible hide in a drawer, which was a hard one. She tried to tell me the lingering odor was it, but I didn't fall for it and so she persisted and found the real deal. We would not be faced with that kind of lingering odor at a trial - they won't even reuse a room on the next day.
The last search was around a fountain. Gimme just had me running around behind her and found those very quickly. I was sure glad to see that she does this well at nosework even in her "condition".
Last night in agility class - she was not very focused, so for her first run we just focused on teaching her to do the chute without curling toward me as she finishes it. We probably did the chute 25 times... Gimme thought that was very fun. We also did the weaves. She missed the entry, but when I put her in again she did them nicely.
For our second run, we did do the course until we found a spot that challenged us... It was a two jump straightaway with a big distance between them and in a place where she'd easily get ahead of me. She curled toward me and missed the second jump. I did it again and used a forward hand signal to send to the second jump. Then Blynn had me do it again using my hand to push out to the side. She said the problem was that she was collapsing in on my line and that I needed to push out to the side not thrust forward. It worked beautifully. I love APHS handling because its so intuitive to the dogs.
We've been doing a little bit of free-shaping of two new tricks for use in RallyFrEe. One is to send her out to run through an upright hoop - which took her all of three clicks to figure out. I wanted it to teach her to go out to the dogwalk up-ramp and have her mount the end, not the side, without me being there. Of course Gimme wanted to embellish it... so once we are done using it for its intended purpose I'll retool it using her idea -- which is, to back to it and through it... She's so clever.
I bought her a cute little stool for our other trick - which is to get on the stool with all four feet and spin around. She's happy to get on it, but not yet comfortable enough to offer turning around. If I'm right there moving around her she will to keep facing me. The stool is small - 8x11 top and ten inches high. Its not too small for her to do that, but enough that she's not yet completely comfortable. I think I'll use a milk crate to shape the intended behavior (with something to make the bottom comfortable on her feeties) and then will transfer it to the stool.
Despite my concerns, she did really well. Her first search she was a bit less focused than normal, but still did great finding both hides in the exterior very quickly. One was in a garden hose caddy, tucked under the edge of the hose. The other was in a pen cap stuck into the ground and covered with bark dust.
The second search was in Diane's tiny garage - good thing she has a sports car or you couldn't get in or out of the car. A couple of the dogs found this space disturbing - it was really crowded and the lighting was very dark at one end. Gimme didn't have any problem with that. She found where the NW1 level hide had been, but had difficulty finding the inaccessible hide in a drawer, which was a hard one. She tried to tell me the lingering odor was it, but I didn't fall for it and so she persisted and found the real deal. We would not be faced with that kind of lingering odor at a trial - they won't even reuse a room on the next day.
The last search was around a fountain. Gimme just had me running around behind her and found those very quickly. I was sure glad to see that she does this well at nosework even in her "condition".
Last night in agility class - she was not very focused, so for her first run we just focused on teaching her to do the chute without curling toward me as she finishes it. We probably did the chute 25 times... Gimme thought that was very fun. We also did the weaves. She missed the entry, but when I put her in again she did them nicely.
For our second run, we did do the course until we found a spot that challenged us... It was a two jump straightaway with a big distance between them and in a place where she'd easily get ahead of me. She curled toward me and missed the second jump. I did it again and used a forward hand signal to send to the second jump. Then Blynn had me do it again using my hand to push out to the side. She said the problem was that she was collapsing in on my line and that I needed to push out to the side not thrust forward. It worked beautifully. I love APHS handling because its so intuitive to the dogs.
We've been doing a little bit of free-shaping of two new tricks for use in RallyFrEe. One is to send her out to run through an upright hoop - which took her all of three clicks to figure out. I wanted it to teach her to go out to the dogwalk up-ramp and have her mount the end, not the side, without me being there. Of course Gimme wanted to embellish it... so once we are done using it for its intended purpose I'll retool it using her idea -- which is, to back to it and through it... She's so clever.
I bought her a cute little stool for our other trick - which is to get on the stool with all four feet and spin around. She's happy to get on it, but not yet comfortable enough to offer turning around. If I'm right there moving around her she will to keep facing me. The stool is small - 8x11 top and ten inches high. Its not too small for her to do that, but enough that she's not yet completely comfortable. I think I'll use a milk crate to shape the intended behavior (with something to make the bottom comfortable on her feeties) and then will transfer it to the stool.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Rally FrEe seminar
First, a quick note about the photo shoot. Gimme did very well, but was exhausted afterward. I thought she was still awake, until I looked closer in the rear view mirror and realized she had already fallen asleep, with her head held up by her chin resting on the crate bars. And this before we got out of the parking hi-rise.
The photographer volunteers at the animal shelter and teaches with a clicker, so we had much in common. Gimme continues to be the most incredible people magnet. We were almost late because of all the people who just had to pet her, despite me planning extra time to find where we needed to go and have time to acclimate to the situation. While we were getting Gimme accustomed to the flash, Katie took pictures, so our private shoot at the end went faster. I could see some pictures pop up on the computer screen and they are going to be DAMN CUTE! Can't wait to see them.
Naturally Gimme totally upstaged the professional model. On an interesting side note... despite tripods and stands and wires and stuff just everywhere - Gimme never bumped into anything or stepped on the wires snaking across the floor. She didn't even wag her tail into stuff. I think that is because of all the early body awareness work we did - so she is just much more aware of her body parts relative to "stuff" in the environment. Things went so well that we got back to town earlier than I expected. Very good since I had scheduled an evening private lesson with Pumpkin, my behavior case; the boy is making progress.
I want to talk about the Rally FrEe seminar before all the impressions fly out of my head. We went two weeks ago; the weekend before I lost Meaggi.
Rally FrEe, stands for Rally with Freestyle Elements. Its like a rally course in that it has a course with signs, otherwise it is very different. In fact, I'd say that's pretty much where the similarity ends. On a plus note, I think its an excellent way to dip your toes into freestyle. And especially for those of us who are choreography-challenged. One very nice thing is that if you enter a trial, you will receive the course 7 - 10 days in advance of the trial. To be honest, you really need it in advance so you can plan free choice signs - otherwise the transitions will eat you alive.
Almost every sign has some freestyle behavior included. One-fourth of the signs are free choice, which means you can plug in behaviors you know well and want to showcase. There are no do-overs. If you make a mistake, you are expected to pretend that was what you planned on and smoothly transition despite the error - as you would in a freestyle performance. Also, you start with zero points and earn them along the way.
I really think Rally FrEe requires a lot more precision than rally if you want a decent score. They also discourage (i.e. you won't earn higher scores) luring type hand motions. You don't have to use dance like hand motions, but will get better scores sometimes if you do. You aren't expected to dance through the course - which would be kinda hard anyway, though there are places where you could.
I think Rally FrEe requires more precision than obedience, since the moves are more complex and the team is scored on minute details. For instance, if you are heeling and the sign calls for a counter-clockwise spin at your side, the dog must both start and end the spin in heel position to get full marks. Likewise if the dog starts in center-front position, the dog must both start and end the spin in that position. The last sign is always a bow sign, which must be performed in position at your side (depends where they were during approach). How many of us had taught our dogs to take a bow from in front of us? Oh, 95%. Back to the drawing board.
Each sign will have a visible clip on either side that tells you what side the dog should be on when approaching the sign. If your dog isn't on the correct side, you are going to have a problem correctly performing that sign. While this sounds easy, it can be really hard to keep it straight and I watched time and time again as teams got mixed up on these very short sample courses of just 4 or 5 signs. Its also easy to miss a sign, even though you walked it correctly, because there is more stuff out there than just signs and the course may wind back and fourth through itself.
Gimme and I had a lot of fun. We had a partner assigned and I surely groaned upon hearing this (because of the dismal experience at the last seminar with partners). However, my partner was very nice and we had a good time together. I also have to say that Oregonians are much friendlier than people from Washington. I thought I'd noticed that before, but it was really apparent during this seminar. Julie Flanery does a great job presenting and is fun - so if she is coming to your area for a Freestyle or Rally FrEe seminar, do sign up.
Gimme did very well in the environment, getting better and better as the weekend went on. One thing I've known all along is that she has more difficulty with sudden environmental change (SEC). So, once she became accustomed to working with the other dogs all around, she put most of her attention on me and did well ignoring them. Sometimes that works to our advantage.
One working session, we were delayed getting in the building, so when the session ended and break was starting, I continued working a few minutes (as did a couple other teams) because we were making headway. What I didn't realize was that even though Gimme seemed to be focused entirely on me, she was very well aware that other dogs were leaving. So a minute later when she and I came out of a circle and another dog was moving by us, Gimme reacted. Dogs had been closer to us than that, so I certainly don't blame the other handler. Possibly coming out of the circle suprised Gimme too, but I think, more than anything, it was SEC. She noticed the other dogs leaving, even if I didn't and thus was more likely to be bothered by a dog moving close, even though that proximity hadn't bothered her before.
Lesson learned for me. I was keeping such a careful watch after that, I started feeling like a hyper-vigilant bobble-head doll. On that note, another thing I really like about this wonderful new sport is the possibility of video-titling. All I have to do is recruit two other people who want to do it at the same time and who are all within 200 miles each other.
You can find out more about this new sport at the RallyFrEe Website.
The photographer volunteers at the animal shelter and teaches with a clicker, so we had much in common. Gimme continues to be the most incredible people magnet. We were almost late because of all the people who just had to pet her, despite me planning extra time to find where we needed to go and have time to acclimate to the situation. While we were getting Gimme accustomed to the flash, Katie took pictures, so our private shoot at the end went faster. I could see some pictures pop up on the computer screen and they are going to be DAMN CUTE! Can't wait to see them.
Naturally Gimme totally upstaged the professional model. On an interesting side note... despite tripods and stands and wires and stuff just everywhere - Gimme never bumped into anything or stepped on the wires snaking across the floor. She didn't even wag her tail into stuff. I think that is because of all the early body awareness work we did - so she is just much more aware of her body parts relative to "stuff" in the environment. Things went so well that we got back to town earlier than I expected. Very good since I had scheduled an evening private lesson with Pumpkin, my behavior case; the boy is making progress.
I want to talk about the Rally FrEe seminar before all the impressions fly out of my head. We went two weeks ago; the weekend before I lost Meaggi.
Rally FrEe, stands for Rally with Freestyle Elements. Its like a rally course in that it has a course with signs, otherwise it is very different. In fact, I'd say that's pretty much where the similarity ends. On a plus note, I think its an excellent way to dip your toes into freestyle. And especially for those of us who are choreography-challenged. One very nice thing is that if you enter a trial, you will receive the course 7 - 10 days in advance of the trial. To be honest, you really need it in advance so you can plan free choice signs - otherwise the transitions will eat you alive.
Almost every sign has some freestyle behavior included. One-fourth of the signs are free choice, which means you can plug in behaviors you know well and want to showcase. There are no do-overs. If you make a mistake, you are expected to pretend that was what you planned on and smoothly transition despite the error - as you would in a freestyle performance. Also, you start with zero points and earn them along the way.
I really think Rally FrEe requires a lot more precision than rally if you want a decent score. They also discourage (i.e. you won't earn higher scores) luring type hand motions. You don't have to use dance like hand motions, but will get better scores sometimes if you do. You aren't expected to dance through the course - which would be kinda hard anyway, though there are places where you could.
I think Rally FrEe requires more precision than obedience, since the moves are more complex and the team is scored on minute details. For instance, if you are heeling and the sign calls for a counter-clockwise spin at your side, the dog must both start and end the spin in heel position to get full marks. Likewise if the dog starts in center-front position, the dog must both start and end the spin in that position. The last sign is always a bow sign, which must be performed in position at your side (depends where they were during approach). How many of us had taught our dogs to take a bow from in front of us? Oh, 95%. Back to the drawing board.
Each sign will have a visible clip on either side that tells you what side the dog should be on when approaching the sign. If your dog isn't on the correct side, you are going to have a problem correctly performing that sign. While this sounds easy, it can be really hard to keep it straight and I watched time and time again as teams got mixed up on these very short sample courses of just 4 or 5 signs. Its also easy to miss a sign, even though you walked it correctly, because there is more stuff out there than just signs and the course may wind back and fourth through itself.
Gimme and I had a lot of fun. We had a partner assigned and I surely groaned upon hearing this (because of the dismal experience at the last seminar with partners). However, my partner was very nice and we had a good time together. I also have to say that Oregonians are much friendlier than people from Washington. I thought I'd noticed that before, but it was really apparent during this seminar. Julie Flanery does a great job presenting and is fun - so if she is coming to your area for a Freestyle or Rally FrEe seminar, do sign up.
Gimme did very well in the environment, getting better and better as the weekend went on. One thing I've known all along is that she has more difficulty with sudden environmental change (SEC). So, once she became accustomed to working with the other dogs all around, she put most of her attention on me and did well ignoring them. Sometimes that works to our advantage.
One working session, we were delayed getting in the building, so when the session ended and break was starting, I continued working a few minutes (as did a couple other teams) because we were making headway. What I didn't realize was that even though Gimme seemed to be focused entirely on me, she was very well aware that other dogs were leaving. So a minute later when she and I came out of a circle and another dog was moving by us, Gimme reacted. Dogs had been closer to us than that, so I certainly don't blame the other handler. Possibly coming out of the circle suprised Gimme too, but I think, more than anything, it was SEC. She noticed the other dogs leaving, even if I didn't and thus was more likely to be bothered by a dog moving close, even though that proximity hadn't bothered her before.
Lesson learned for me. I was keeping such a careful watch after that, I started feeling like a hyper-vigilant bobble-head doll. On that note, another thing I really like about this wonderful new sport is the possibility of video-titling. All I have to do is recruit two other people who want to do it at the same time and who are all within 200 miles each other.
You can find out more about this new sport at the RallyFrEe Website.
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