Hummmm....

I didn't post last night...had a bad headache and was REALLY tired from lack of sleep the night before. I have two dogs that are aging and it's like having puppies all over again...they need to make frequent trips outside to avoid accidents in the house and I can't seem to get them on the same schedule!!

Last nights session was pretty much a repeat from the day before but the session tonight had some interesting moments. We started out with the catching game at liberty. We started with version 1 and again, America kept turning to face me but was not making any effort to follow me so I progressed to version 2. After 4 laps she was still not looking for me so I went to version 3. On the first lap of version 3, America chose the wrong answer but on the second lap she was looking for me and this is when she really began to put some energy and effort into following me even when I changed direction and/or speed and she positioned herself with her shoulder at my shoulder. She also did a nice job of stopping when I stopped, although we still need to work on her stopping straight - she sometimes wants to swing her hq out and away. It only took about 5 minutes to go through the entire process so we're making progress there too.

We moved to online for the back and over exercise. Interestingly, with me on her right side (where she often tries to put me on her left), we got the best back and over. I had played some friendly game on that side until she relaxed and the back and over was nice, slow, and her front crossed over while her hind foot stayed planted. With me on her left, she again had sticky feet during the over part of the exercise. The back up was nice and soft and on a simple lift of the lead (with an open hand and the rope in my palm). For the open part of the exercise, I gave her a change (long phase 1) to think through what I wanted then went through my phases until she responded. After two repetitions she was much more responsive and moving off phase 1 or 2. I noticed from this side, her hind feet tend to creep a bit more as well. I'll need to pay attention to that in our next session.

The next exercise was circling and looking for relaxation on the circle. This took a bit more time tonight and it may be because it rained today and the weather is cooler but it took her 10-12 laps to the left for her to finally relax on the circle. It took her that long to lower her head a bit but when she did, she lowered her head, blew, and came down to a walk. Whew...that took a while. On the circles to the right, it only took 4 laps for America to relax and lower her head. This is the opposite of what happened last night when she relaxed quicker on the circles to the left and the right took longer.

Our squeeze game while backing into and out of the round pen is really getting nice..America is moving off my energy more and more so I don't need to use higher phases.

We played some sideways game tonight and America is getting better at staying in position and not lagging in her hq. When she does lag her hq I gently swing the rope towards her hq, she moves back into position and keeps moving. It was kind of fun tonight while doing the sideways; I had left a barrel near the rail and when we got to it, America looked at it, moved her body into position, and sidepassed right over it. I gave her a little time when we got to the barrel to sort her feet out and was rewarded with the sidepass over the barrel...it was fun and made the sideways game interesting for America. I rewarded her for her effort by stopping right after and got quite a bit of licking and chewing!

We also played with squeeze over the barrel but I might put this on the back burner for a while as America tends to rush through the jump and the turn, face, and wait is also rushed even though I'm not using my cs and string for the bring back. I want to ask Jerry about this at our next lesson. I'm not sure if she's unconfident with the jump but suspect that's the problem and I want to get more arrows before playing with this any more so I can avoid creating or reinforcing unwanted behavior/reactions.