Riley and I had a great run with the pack this morning, and Roxanne recommended I get her through her String Test while she was still a little worn out from that. We stopped for a visit with Roxanne on the way to Central Valley, and then I set up for her test!
A sweet shot Roxanne shared from today's HHPR
It took me two strings and three tries. We did some fast paced heeling with quick starts and 270 degree right-halt/ double left-halt turns, and then started the first try. All of a sudden I had a dog that halted 3 steps in front of me... not sure how I managed to condition her to do that... 🤦♀️
Here's what I consider our successful attempt. (I will include the first to takes-bloopers-at the end of this post.) The string slipped between the opening in the snap bolt on the leash twice but did not break. It made for a little confusion but I'm still counting it as a win. 🤣
I have noticed, the past few days, that Riley has a severe case of what I am calling the 'shifty feeties' during her sit-stays. So for a couple minutes after our successful string test I decided to backwash to a 3 ft stay with the collar high and the leash held straight up behind her ears. I have decided I need to do this more (not sure how much more time I will have to do it, though 😬).
Finally! We did our Week 12 Exam, which Niko bombed miserably a couple weeks ago. We worked against people (I SO WISHED I had started TCs with her, because she lost her marbles around ALL THE FRIENDS!) Even so, check out this AMAZING Week 12 Exam!
Confession: If this had not been an exam, I probably would have (and should have) done a dEC for (2) sloppy pickups and (2) hesitations.
The hesitations came because the dumbbell landed so close to people, and the second time it landed behind her good friend Jürgen, so I was just overjoyed she completed the retrieve at all! I love watching her make good choices! Great job, Riley!
----BLOOPER REEL----
I remember taking at least ten takes on this with Niko. Working through it relatively fast with Riley has me curious to see if Niko would pass it with fewer takes, now, too.
Today we started with the retrieves in the hour or so before I needed to go to one of my boys’ school programs. The RoHJ was a little rocky, but interspersed between a few ‘No Birds’ I feel like we got five good retrieves. I let Riley get a little sloppy by the end so we did do a solid dEC and then I tried to finish on a high note.
RoF is where I feel the real magic happened. This time I was a little quicker with my ‘hand-over-hand’ and the dEC from the beginning. The third and fourth pickups were (from my perspective) SOLID. She grabbed the dumbbell by a bell on the last pickup but when I adjusted it when she got back to me she was lightening making sure that thing did not hit the ground. (Note the handler’s happy dance after that first really good pickup 😂)
I couldn’t work where I wanted to during school, and after school Graydon and I had a dinner date with some of his extended family, so I zipped over with her around 6 pm to try out the Vickster’s test. We did LL until I could tell her ‘work switch’ had flipped, then some fast paced heeling before I hit ‘record.’
I feel like she did… okay. I’m having some trouble with lagging and heeling wide, and her stays struggled a bit, but I’m… meh… confident there is a pass in there somewhere.
I’ve decided that since this is somewhat of a condensed program I want everyone to see how I am correcting/guiding Riley, so I can be corrected/guided as necessary.
One last thought: I was thinking as I was writing this about how odd it is that Riley struggles with our evening sessions, like she is worn out at the end of the day. Then as I added that last video I started considering some (or many of) my sloppy mechanics during the session. Lightbulb moment: Riley may or may not be worn out by the end of the day, but this handler certainly is. And as her handler’s mechanics get sloppier, so does the she. It is almost like she takes my sloppy mechanics as permission to be sloppier, herself.
