Freestyle demo and practice

I didn't report on our demo. Morgan was part of a freestyle demo that Peggy and I did for our club last Thursday night. I loaded myself down with cookies and off we went. At first we did our singles routine which was done to Flashdance. I JUST got the choreography for it done two days before so to say that we weren't ready for prime time was an understatement. However, Morgan didn't do terribly. I think she liked being the center of attention but it didn't keep her focused on me. The chicken helped.

During the pairs routine, she was just the tiniest bit better. At least she didn't start a fight with Matt like she did today in practice. Well, she got in his face and he didn't like it at all. There were parts of the routine she did really well and other parts that were bad. I felt encouraged because none of the moves was awful.

However, today, with no audience and no chicken, she was simply terrible. She wouldn't do any of the moves and those she did do she did slowly and without any enthusiasm. This dog is so very frustrating to me.

Freestlye practice

This morning we did our freestyle practice like I used to walk the excellent courses in agility. We started at the end. I told Peggy that Morgan wasn't getting the ending becuase we have spent most of the time doing the opening. I told her how I remembered the course in agility by walking the last five obstacles, then the last 10 and then the whole course. It worked great.

So today, we practiced the last section of our routine. Morgan was finally getting it. Yay!!!! She even seemed to be having some fun. On Wednesday, we have to practice our single's routine.

GCOC agility match/Poodle Club Match

I took Morgan to do the agility match because she isn't ready for an agility trial yet. I decided that I would do four obstacles and get the hell off the course if she stayed with me. I fed her cheese like a pez machine before I went into the ring and put her cheese away before we went in. I do believe that she really likes all the running and jumping in agility so she didn't seem to care that I didn't have food. She was brilliant. Took direction easily and changed her path when I asked, didn't knock one bar, and even did a rear cross which I kinda bobbled. :) I was very proud of my girl.

I judged obedience in the poodle club match today but I was determined to take Morgan through her paces in rally and obedience. I literally yanked her out of the motor home and 5 minutes later we were in the rally ring. I gave her cheese before we went in and I took a small piece in with me. She did fabulously. I am so pleased. Her heeling in Novice was absolutely gorgeous (I did have chees in the right hand that I transferred to the left when she did something particularly well. However, on the off lead heel,she didn't miss a step. Yay, yay, yay, yay!!! I think my girl is beginning to understand the game.

Freestye and Obedience

Today, Morgan did very well with her freestyle lesson in conjuction with Peggy Singletary. Our pairs routine may work out yet :) I also did a teeny bit of work on our individual. Peggy gave me some good ideas on the individual routine. I think we can have some fun with it.

Today, MOrgan's heeling was BANG ON! And I didn't feed her until her heeling pattern was finished. YAY!

Freestyle 9/26

The freestyle routine we are doing with Peggy is coming along. Today, she wanted to change our hand movements and get rid of the treats. I told her we had to do one thing at a time. I hope she doesn't change anything else in the routine because I am geting dizzy with all the changes and I may just quit. While I am getting frustrated with Peggy, Morgan is cooperating better and seems to be having fun with me which is FABULOUS.

Generalization

I learned something very interesting about Morgan and it has taken me 6 years to figure it out. The dog has a heck of a time generalizing AND LOOKING DOWN! It is amazing about the looking down part because it took her six months to realize there was stuff above her head. She was living with a toy and a mini and looking down was what she did. When she looked up, she never looked down again (unless I dropped food there :)

Today,I tried to practice our freestyle routine with tiny little pylons as compared to the big ones we have been using. She never saw the pylon and would not look at it when I tried to point it out. It seems she thought 'It is small, it is insignificant and I don't want to acknowledge it.' I realize some of her reaction was confusion but that knowledge didn't keep me from losing my temper with her. I started out with the clicker and why I didn't just shape the behavior, I do not know. It would have made the session so much happier. Yeah, I do know why I didn't shape it, it was because in my head, she already knew this sequence and I only had the clicker to increase the number of times she would need to do it. I was not willing to go backwards with her.

She eventually got it but not after I yelled at her "What is wrong with you?" 'Well what was wrong is that I don't generalize and you are going to have to teach it to me again, stupid,' (she probably thought).

I really wish I didn't get so mad at her. She is such a smart dog but I just have not figured out how her brain works. I can't do high reps with her and she loses attention quickly and when she is confused, she just checks out.

Training Pen is so much more fun.

Freestyle

Morgan is doing a lot better with her freestyle routine. I think it is because she did not have any distractions. I think that I need to train alone for a little while and then get back together with Peggy to practice. Morgan and I need about 5 more sessions alone before we rejoin Peggy and Matt and I think, then, we will be able to do so much better with the music.