Timely Thoughts

Denise Fenzi has a timely article up on motivators and motivation, which has left me thoughtful. This is a somewhat tangential post.

Rio worked well for treats at our extra session at the arena this week, but she wasn’t fully engaged in the game. I had a mixture of food and a treat bag toy. In terms of skills, she is working really well; her drive forward is beautiful, providing I keep quiet and let her roll. She is picking up obstacles nicely, and she’s responding well to handling cues (rear and front crosses). She occasionally ducks out on the first jump, which I’m beginning to suspect is an inadvertent mishap on my part; when she breaks her wait (which is rare), we run back to the start and begin again. I think she thinks the failure to continue is because she took that specific jump, not as a consequence of breaking the wait, so I need a new plan there.

She also occasionally ducks under/around jumps if they’re on odd angles or she’s on the wrong stride, which is fine. She’s a baby and I’d rather she did that than the pole crashing we’ve had in the past. Her jumping style is occasionally unconventional but she is smooth and clean and fast, but not as fast as she can go.

Returning to motivators. Sort of.

We dropped in on a clicker workshop at North K9 this weekend, after my Agility Skills class in the morning. Rio was a handy demo dog and she loves shaping, so I thought it would be fun. And it was! We had such a great time, Rio was super switched on and 100% engaged in the game. Why? Because her motivator was better, or because the method was better, or because I wasn’t placing any pressure on her? I think I know the answer to that.

Dogwalk notes: Restrained recalls on the dogwalk were less successful than the Aframe. The narrower plank meant she wasn’t comfortable powering along, she was a lot more cautious, especially on the top plank. She’s concerned about falling, I think. Not entirely sure how to overcome that, other than more restrained recalls?