Sunday, October 28, 2007

Fun match (Dream Fields) - Teeter success!

Dream Fields held a fun match in conjunction with an AAC judge's clinic, which was a fabulous opportunity to test Lucy's teeter confidence. It was at Dream Fields earlier this month that Lucy had a big scare on the teeter, and since I don't train there and they rarely have fun matches as far as I know, this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. My single goal for the match was for her to do the teeter (and dogwalk, of which she was also afraid after her teeter scare) and hopefully to do it with confidence.

The dogwalk (which is the springiest of the dogwalks she's ever been on) was the third obstacle of the Standard course, and as she began to climb the upramp she slowed and looked very unsure, but she continued up with no encouragment needed. Later in the run, I collected her after the tunnel which preceeded the teeter, and then - the moment of truth. She did the teeter with only a slight hint of hesitation, again no encouragement from me was needed. A nice tasty treat for Lucy got us whistled off the course, but since they were encouraging participants to break the rules for the sake of the judges-in-training, they allowed those of us whose rule-breaking resulted in elimination to have a rerun. For the rerun, she had no hesitancy at all on the dogwalk, and again did the teeter with full confidence. No treat this time since we had used up our treat-giving quota.

For Gamblers, I was planning to not even attempt the dogwalk or teeter since she had already had four successes. But then, while I was trying to position her for the gamble after the whistle blew, she decided she'd rather do the nearby teeter instead. Well, that was just fine with me and we ended the run with that. :-)

Non-teeter/dogwalk related notes:
- While on the table she noticed the judge doing the count down and became nervous about him. She stared at him and had an uncomfortable air about her, as if wondering what the heck he was staring at her for, and why he was apparently talking to himself. This was extremely strange behaviour for Lucy, who's a total social butterfly with people, men included.
- On one of her Starters courses, she kept entering the 6-weaves at the second pole. We retried them two times but she kept doing it so I just kept going.
- Both Standard courses were good overall, as was her first try at the Gamblers, but on her Gamblers rerun (due to timer malfunction) she became a bit scatterbrained, running past obstacles left right and center.

Anyway, I'm just extremely glad (and relieved!) that she did so well on the teeter and dogwalk.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Practice (K9S)

A short practice throwing the teeter into some sequences. What a difference over last Sunday -- no teeter hesitation at all today.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Practice (KK9)

Today was Lucy's first time on the KK9 teeter, which is quite different from other ones she's been on in that it's made of lightweight aluminum. Anyway, after warming up I took her to it as the last of a little sequence and she was on the hesitant side, but completed it with no urging from me. Ran to the setup area for some super duper treats. Did it several more times and she showed increased confidence, no hesitation. Later on, I moved it to another area of the field and it happened that now she was near the fence when taking it, looking out onto a busy scene with construction machinery and kids playing (how's that for an odd combination of distractions). The first time, she hopped off before it started to tilt. I said nothing, let her wander around for a second and then encouraged her to try it again. This time she succeeded; party time as before, and she was fine on it for the rest of the session.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Practice (BF)

Today we played a game with the teeter. She was rewarded with the super duper treats, but this time I left the treats at our setup area. So she had to do the teeter, get a regular treat at 2o2o, then we ran to get the super duper treats. Also I've started using the teeter cue again. She's fine with this teeter again, and the hope is that when she hears "teeter" at a new place, she'll eagerly do it and know that she'll be well rewarded for it even if I don't have the goods right there with me.