Celebrating small successes

Today was a good day. 🙂

This morning we went in the front yard and walked around the street and she was focused on me the whole time. In fact, she was so focused on me she didn’t want to potty! (we did get the potty accomplished). She did really well out front this morning.

When I got home from work, we did a little work in the yard but not much— mainly with some sits.  I had her tethered to me while I did some stuff around the house.

Then we went to agility class. Last week was awful. Tonight was better. I changed a few things. First, I brought her collapsible crate we use at trials. I thought perhaps she’d be more comfortable than the little crate she rides in on car rides.  Secondly, she wore the thundershirt. And finally I had her on a ribbon. Before our first run, we did some focus exercises around the building. She was heavily rewarded for staying focused. I used a lot of our methods and moves from L2E. We did a few obstacles then — jumps and the table and I rewarded after each obstacle, then after 2 then after 3. It’s back to the gambling analogy I mentioned the other day. We ended on a high note.

On our second turn we did even more longer sequences with heavy rewards after just a few obstacles.  We also added the tunnel and weaves. She did great. One dog in a crate looked at her and she looked at it and didn’t respond at all. She looked back at me and we did our thing. She got lots of rewards and had a good time!!

When we got home, our landlord’s dog was outside going potty. For some reason Gypsy has issues with her. She’s very old, can’t walk, can’t breathe well and is noisy. She’s a very old yellow lab who is deaf and isn’t even aware of anything. Gypsy can hear her a mile away. We got out of the car and I was ready with treats. I put the leash around my waist (I had the buddy system with me that I took to class) and we worked around Mocha with sits and fronts and heels with lots of cookies. We stayed pretty far away and Gypsy did look at Mocha but she was more interested in the treats I had with me. The more cookies she got, the more she didn’t care about Mocha. It went really well. As soon as Mocha was back inside the house, Gypsy was focused on me. Before she would be pulling and sniffing every step Mocha took.  I wish she didn’t respond at all when we got out of the car and started the session, but it was definitely better than anything we’ve done in the past to counter-condition. Poor Mocha is sad to watch. 😦

We are now resting for the evening and Gypsy has a rawhide. She’s barking a little at noises upstairs is better at not barking than she used to be.

Tonight I am thankful for keeping the hope and continuing on.

 

Old ways trying to change

In a mix with our L2E training with sits and leave its, we did a private agility lesson today with a trainer who is one of the best handlers in the world. That’s why I went to her and paid what she changes which wasn’t too bad considering.  I know a lot of my handling is inconsistent, causes stress to Gypsy and needs a lot of improvement.

Aside from Gypsy’s normal anxiety, I am hoping if I can be a more consistent handler and have a method and only one method I’m going to use, her anxiety around me will be turned into trust and confidence.

So we worked on a variety of sequences in the hour lesson, most of them jump sequences and I learned a lot about how Gypsy reads my body language. I learned that some of the words I use on the course aren’t good words to use and I learned how one small mis-move on my part can throw her into a major off course (which happened as she took several obstacles in the horse arena I was at.

So I cam away from this lesson with a book to read to finding my one and only handling method and some practices to do in the yard until I meet with her again next month sometime. It was a great lesson and well-worth the cost. I learned more from this class than I did in weeks of agility just in terms of handling and how Gypsy responds to my movements.

Most of her treat allocations went to the class. We did a little more sits and stuff in the yard but not much today. She spotted the neighbor behind us in the window and reacted with barking, staring and behavior I don’t want. I tried to stop it but she was too tied into it. So I need to continue rewarding when she looks at the house with no one in the window and doesn’t react so we can then apply that to when she does see the neighbor. I’m going to use the Manners Minder to help with this, as I hope to train her that when she sees the neighbor, she’ll run to the MM target which will be near the door. If she doesn’t bark, I’ll be able to beep the target and then the MM will be just inside the door. That’s my plan at least.

So it’s after 11pm and I’ve procrastinated once again.

Today I am thankful for amazing agility handlers who can help me.