When it was her turn again we searched inside this time. The search included five hides of varying difficulty and the most difficult one she struggled on was on the lid of a box on the floor with the remainder of the box (It was a shoe box.) snugged up against it. Also, I had hidden one on the under side and inner end of the wheel well of the trailer in the barn. Just a couple of feet away was a quad where we had a hide placed previously for one of the other dogs. Apparently it trapped a lot of odor because she kept being drawn back to it even though nothing was there for her. I ended up re-directing her to the trailer and she eventually nailed it. It was really cool to watch her start to detail the wheel well from the outside and then see her head start tilting as she came around to the well itself.
After we were done with nose work she got some fun time on the agility equipment in the barn. Nancy was working obedience and a few obstacles with Ean so we stayed to one end of the barn. I wanted to work weave entrances mostly but we, of course, threw in some other obstacles as well. And Vegas, despite being too big and my usual avoidance in directing her to tunnels, proved that she can fall prey to the tunnel suck, too. Not once. Not twice. Several times. She was clearly having a ball. In one instance we had a setup something like the following:
-------
-------
-------
----
| |
---- *
*
*
*
*
*
*
X *
*
X
X
The lines at the top represent the broad jump, the box is the table, and then weaves. We started on the left and I sent her over the broad and I pulled way out beyond the table but sent her to the weaves as she was clearing the broad. She did make the mistake of coming to the table a couple of times but she also successfully nailed her weaves several times, too. Not only did she nail the weaves, too, she completed them. She drove through them with complete confidence and no hesitation about finishing. I was super proud of her driving through and not worrying about where I was. If you see above the Xs, those represent different areas I ended up as she was weaving and at times I was even moving my arms around which didn't phase her.
Her weave work was really awesome which was really exciting. We did a few more drills on weaves and she didn't let me down at all. Any failed entry was my handling and slow queuing. I even had her coming down off the a-frame, making sure she really stuck her contact, and turning sharply back off the frame all within about six feet and still asking her to take the weaves. When my queues were timely she made the entrance nicely.
She was being pretty funny, too, showing me she knows what to do on the teeter. On the first weave exercise I mentioned above, not shown off to the far left was the teeter. She kept taking the teeter on the way back to the broad jump and would nail her contact and just stand there with four on and wait for me to give her a release. She was pretty darn cute.
Last night she had a bath and I hope to get some pictures tomorrow while her coat is still shiny. I used a cream rinse and really worked it into her coat. She seems to be thickening up a bit in the neck and shoulders area. I hope that bodes well for the remainder of her coat. Perhaps it has to do with some of the new food items she's been getting lately.
Saturday is a fun match. I've got her entered to run in both Standard and JWW. Will be nice to get to run even if it's just for fun. Fortunately for us its free so its no harm no foul but I can get her back into the trial mind set since the next four weekends are trials for us. Yay for agility! Happy Memorial Day weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment