I Can See Clearly Now, the Food Is Gone

After our lesson with Karen on Sunday, we removed food from the heeling exercise. Now I can really see what Dreamer is made of. I'm not surprised to report that her willingness to work is still there. I'm cheating a little bit, though. After a few turns, halts, and maybe a change of pace, I tend to slip Dreamer a reward. My plan is to give her less and less of the food before our next lesson. As much as I trust Karen, I just don't think it's fair to suddenly halt all food. Maybe I'm just prolonging the inevitable low morale that comes with withdrawal of the food, but I don't think so. I figure we've taken it slow as molasses with baby steps this long. Why stop now with a big Hail Mary?

Dreamer and I are working on the broad jump and various pieces of Open and Utility. Thank goodness because I would die of boredom if heeling was all we had to look forward to. Last week, Karen said she wants me to start practicing dumbbell holds with Dreamer on recalls as well as the high jump! Dreamer is becoming very good with the holds but isn't at the retrieving step yet. She doesn't even pick it up off the ground yet. We haven't learned that piece of the puzzle. I like how we're learning, though, and I trust that all the steps are coming at the right time. I hope to post videos and/or photos soon of the things we're learning. I think you'll find them interesting. Until then, happy training!

Back At The Contacts!

Debbie's brother-in-law died so they left for a GSD show and then on to the funeral. I picked up their mail and newspapers yesterday and stored them safely. It was so cute when I got there: Seeker was thrilled to see where we were since she hadn't been there in almost 3 weeks due to her kennel cough quarantine. She ran around the yard and deck looking for Debbie and her dogs. She seemed quite confused that no one was home, but once we started running, she was totally focused. I only did the contacts because I didn't want to have to set up any jumps or a course. And it's the contacts she hasn't been on in 3 weeks. I was thrilled to see that she hadn't lost a step. She made 2 mistakes: the teeter was at a strange angle in the yard and I sent her to it from a 90 degree angle. She jumped on sideways and then realized she couldn't keep her balance and jumped off. So for the time being, I'll be sure to give her a good entry to the teeter and then work on strange angles after I show her. She also missed the contact on the A-frame once. This is my biggest fear at the shows. I wonder if she will get so excited that she will launch herself. It happens when she is really running fast. I certainly don't want to slow her down, I just want her to think about the bottom section. So we went back to her target work where she keeps her head down and scoots down fast with a lot of little steps. Other than that, she was fast and happy. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she did all 12 weave poles even though at home I have them set up as two separate set of 6 poles. I'm doing that because I want to practice the entries from all angles and that gives her more practice at that. Plus, in Novice, she only be running 6 poles. I want to keep her fast at 6. I found that when I was doing 12 all the time, when she saw 6, she would slow down. I also have noticed that now that I have my poles increased to 24 inches, she has found a rhythm and muscle memory has taken over. For awhile there, she got tired by the end of 12 poles when they were at 24 inches because it was a different feel for her than her 22 inch poles at home. The best part was I proofed her to see if I could "save" her at the shows. It used to be that once she would see an obstacle or jump in line ahead of her, she would just assume that was where she was going. She still does that and I like it, because she will gladly move out on her own and is both obstacle and handler focused. But now, I can call her off the wrong obstacle and she moves toward me in a split second. So last night, I had her running on my right where the next obstacle in line was the A-frame, but I called her over toward the table as I ran toward it. She did great! But I just realized that I only tested this with a "pull". She is much better at pulls than pushes. So when I go back to Debbie's on Wednesday to train, I will test it with a "push".

I'm also finding that I am able to process things much faster than I used to. I am better able to see the course and the dog at the same time. You are going to have so much fun in your new Thursday night class when you get to do all this fun stuff. I can't wait to hear all about it.