Urban Tracking (112)

On Friday, October 26th,  Nadine and I met at Game Farm Park for some tracking.  The weather was a cool 56 degrees, no real breeze and grass was damp.


She laid this track for us, calling it the "Autumn Leaves" track.  There were a ton of fallen leaves for Gimme to track through.  She normally loves to play in leaf piles, but this day she was all business about her track.

Nadine took a bunch of pictures of us... Here are the four nicest.

RFE practice (79)

I've entered West2 in the intermediate class. We just need one more leg to finish the title. The bad news - Gimme is starting into her false pregnancy a little early. I just hope we can do well enough to make a good showing. My focus for this session was to resume coursework with back-chaining.

I was pleased right off the bat she was able to stay with me and work when I took the leash off. I've only had to walk her down twice and she got the message. This tells me she didn't "need" to check stuff out, she just wanted to and I let her develop the habit. Good to have such an easy remedy.

Last back chain video - I started by trying each of the different behaviors I wanted to put in a chain. Then started pairing them together. Despite Gimme's willingness to work, she was still drawn to corners, edges and J'Anna's props. I should have worked the corner distractions separate from behaviors. I think as I'm doing individual behaviors, I need to do them out of order. Then I want to pair a couple, like 1 & 2, then 4 & 5. Then add behavior 3 before/after pairs, and then put the full five behaviors together. This should stitch them together in a chain without doing a lot of repetitions. And I have to remember not to put the ending bow in a chain, since her first bow is the best.

Full sequence video - At the end of the prior run-through, I thought Gimme had done very well, so I threw a handful of treats for her. This was a big mistake. She was so excited she couldn't think for the next run through. There was a lot of whining and "extras", trying to find the magic combination to cause me to do it again. I'm so glad I made this mistake on a regular practice day, so I wasn't blowing a day when we were videoing for our entries.

Center pivot video - I wanted to make it a point to practice the clockwise pivot first, so Gimme would know which behavior we were doing and hopefully be able to do it without turning it into "otto". It worked better than doing counter-clockwise first.

"Scoot" w/target video - I wanted to try out an idea to straighten her "scoot". Her tendency is to angle to my right (starting from center) which I think is caused by her right rear pushing harder. Initially I thought she might be stronger on her right rear, but in thinking about it, I now believe she just habitually takes larger steps with her right rear in certain situations.  For instance it doesn't affect her forward movement, but does for side or back movement. So, I put a target out and had her "scoot" to it. In watching this video, next time I think I want to position our starting point so she actually has to angle in the other direction to end up at the target. And of course, I need to start with shorter distances. It's possible I may need to use a barrier, such as a wall. We'll see how it goes next time.

Sidepass into dog video - I am doing a sort of grapevine step as a physical cue for Gimme to know to "move" away from me. It goes smoother for her when she's in "side" position because it's already her stepping in her easy direction. I think I really need to practice the step without her. I also think I should do it without shoes so I'm not so worried about stepping on her feet, which adds to my awkwardness.

Center pivot-2 video - I wanted to do this again. I did find Gimme did better when I started spitting treats to her when she was in a good "center" position. I think I need to be faster about responding when she moves out of "center". I also think it might be better to actually pivot right a step or two when she moves too far left and out of position. Operating on the theory to make the discrepancy bigger and more obvious to her. I did find it made a difference if I held concentrated eye contact with her. 
 
Overall this was a very productive training session with a lot of ideas to refine my process.

Nosework (2/34)

The searches were all interiors, set up in a very busy area. The idea is to set your hand at one -short- distance on the leash and keep it at that length, as well as firm tension.

Interior 1 video - The first search we had to hold something under our arm and I did a paper napkin. This was to keep us from raising our arm to maintain tension. I thought Gimme found it weird for me to be right behind her all the time. She isn't bothered by it, but I did see a couple looks of annoyance when she turns quickly and I'm in her way. Normally she isn't interested in latex squeak toys, but this night she was all about wanting the witch toy. Dorothy was going to take it away, but I said to leave it, since I wanted Gimme to have the opportunity to work through this distraction. I finally get her to move on and then she becomes distracted by another toy - which I thought, oh heck, I don't know what I thought. I rewarded her for her interest, when the hide was about three feet away. Dorothy was very nice to spin my lapse, saying I was rewarding her for not-stealing the toy. Gimme's search was almost 5 minutes! Of course she spent a lot of time working through toy distractions, so I'm pleased with her efforts.

BTW I now know Gimme can still hear the video even when I use the headset. She hates listening to us training when it's coming from the laptop and leaves the room. So I use a headset when I'm editing them. She still leaves the room sometimes. Tonight when the squeak-a-rama was going on, she came back and ran around checking her toys - presumably looking for the one I stepped on.

Interior 2 video - This time we didn't have to hold something under our arm. I decided, despite Dorothy saying it was the perfect length, to give Gimme more line so I wasn't in her way if she changed direction. She does change directions a lot and fast, so it seemed a better option. Gimme goes right to the nearest hide from the start. She checks then leaves the nearest toy and goes quickly to the next hide. It takes her a little longer to find the third hide and based on where it was, I think she was working a converging odor challenge. She does go back to check on the latex witch toy, then leaves it on her own. I decided to reward her decision. The current wisdom in nosework training is to only reward finding hides, but I thought her decision was important to reward. And, as Dorothy pointed out, she has enough experience to understand the distinction. From there she goes right to the last hide, though I have to wait for her to indicate source on it. Since we didn't have to work through the toy distractions, this search was faster by 3 minutes.

Interior 3 video - I swallowed something while we were waiting and it went down the wrong pipe. Fortunately, Gimme isn't bothered by me hacking up a lung; she was far more interested in searching off lead. It takes her a minute to find the first hide. Then a minute to find the other three. Interestingly, she is working out some puzzle in the middle of the room, then suddenly makes a direct line to the last hide in the other end of the room.

All of her searches were nice. I was proud of her working through the toy distraction. She's getting ready to go into a false pregnancy, so toy squeaks are a much bigger deal for her right now.

I can't say I'm impressed with this new handling technique; I don't get the point of it. I watched both instructors do it with their dogs the week before and it just looks awkward. It certainly feels awkward. I like what I've been doing, which is much like what we do with tracking. It makes sense to me to be consistent in how I'm handling the line. Luckily Gimme doesn't get thrown off by trying all these weird ideas.

New Titles - UKC nosework

On Saturday, October 27th, we went to Vancouver for a UKC trial. Gimme came into the weekend needing three advanced legs to complete 4 titles. On Saturday we had back-to-back searches, Vehicles to Exterior.

Vehicles - There were three whole cars to search. Gimme started across the front and turned back when she got halfway across the bumper of the second car. She sniffed the passenger side front tire and door, then went back around the front and down the driver's side. She sniffed under the middle of the car then quickly smelled her way around the back to the passenger side rear tire, where she alerted. Her time was 18.7 seconds (6 seconds behind first place), for Third Place, and finished our Advanced Vehicle title (AV). Our RallyFrEe practice buddy, Glory, got 1st - the breeze was blowing the scent directly to her as she got to the space between the first and second cars. When Gimme searched the breeze was lighter and kinda swirly.

Exterior - This was a good size search area with some landscaping and a lot of "stuff" on the sidewalk. The startline is the orange line behind the larger tree on the right. Gimme started by turning left into the landscaping off the startline. She didn't go far before she turned back to the sidewalk and sniffed around. She sniffed a black plastic cap next to the little bench and gave me a "look", but I didn't interpret it as an indication (my bad), so then she pawed the cap and I called it. Even with my failure her time was just 8.9 seconds - she got First Place, High in Trial, and completed her Advanced Exterior title (AE).

Our drive home was 2 hours and then to Mom's was another 1:15. I fixed her supper and then drove home. I'd spent 6:30 driving and was exhausted. I was still tired when I got up in the morning, Sunday, October 28th. I was pretty certain Gimme was going to be on her own once we got to the start lines for her searches.

Containers - There was a long line of 12 standard white boxes and I was sure we could get it, provided she didn't go into Demolition Gimme mode. Gimme took two steps onto the gym floor and then just froze. She was standing up on her toenails and unwilling to move. I encouraged her, but it didn't help. I finally supported her using her harness and slowly got her to the startline. The judge was very patient. Once she smelled odor, Gimme relaxed a bit and made her way gingerly down the line of boxes. She stutter-stepped at the fifth box, but didn't stick it. When we got to the end of the line, she froze again... but was able to get moving again, heading back down the line and this time indicated on the same box. I called it and she was right. This completed her Advanced Containers title (AC) and since it was the fourth element at this level we also got her Advanced Nosework title (AN). Gimme's time was 24.2 seconds, very slow for her. I was just so proud of her willingness to work under conditions which were clearly upsetting for her. Given the challenge, her time was good.

After the search she got stuck again and I had to help her with support through her harness to cross the full gym floor to the door. Gimme has never had an issue with linoleum/tile floors, never, not ever. In fact the day before, our route from vehicles to exterior was walking through this same gym and she had no issue. One of the stewards said several dogs had issues with the floor and their owners also said it had not been a problem before. She thought maybe the overhead lights were reflecting against the floor and creating some kind of creepy visual for the dogs. This could be it - when we crossed through the gym the day before, we only had the outdoor light coming through the two open doors, i.e. no reflection.

Interior - This was our first Superior run. The search area wasn't especially large (400 square feet max), but there were two hides and two distinct areas. The search area was a convoluted shape and filled with all manner of stuff. Fortunately Gimme isn't bothered by crowded search areas; I was certainly thankful we could search off leash.

Gimme ignored the threshold and the bit of locker room to the left (lowest picture), going into the first big room. She cruised around in there and then went to the second room. Once in there she soon found a hide on the chair under the white board (behind the woman in the white jacket). She did some more searching in this room and then returned to the first room. She showed some interest in the little stool, but left it and checked other areas in the room. Knowing we had a second hide, as she was coming back toward me I asked her to "humor me" by checking the threshold and lockers. She did, snorted her disdain for my stupid nose and went back to the room, quickly alerting on the stool. Her time was 2:30.1 and the fastest dog was 48 seconds. I'm not bothered by her time - when we get to higher levels, her search style and ability will serve her well. I was happy for her to Q on her first attempt at superior.

Our drive home was 2 hours and this time I dropped Gimme at home since she'd been in the car so much already. Then I drove 1:15 to Mom's and fixed her supper before driving home. Over the weekend I spent 13 hours driving 650 miles. I should get a prize for this.

Here is Gimme posing with all her ribbons and new toy. These four new titles bring us to title #59.  Just sayin...

I think she knows the photo routine, since she immediately gets up and lays in front of her ribbons when I start pinning them in place. I guess she wants to make sure I remember what is most important here.