Obedience practise

So Spryte is definitely pregnant!  Spryte went on Wednesday for an ultrasound and it showed at least 3 or 4 puppies.  I was able to see heartbeats and moving paws, it was really neat.  At this point I was pretty sure she was pregnant as she is getting bigger and bigger by the day.  But I wanted to know for sure that it wasn't a false pregnancy and a rough estimate of number of puppies.  It was a trip worth making for my peace of mind and that of the people on the waitlist.

Well needless to say now that Spryte is for sure pregnant there have been some restrictions imposed on her life. No more agility (we haven't done any for weeks just in case she falls off the equipment), no more playing fetch (she runs to hard and often skids into the ball), no more sleeping on the bed (can't risk a fall) and no playing with dogs other than our own (can't risk being body checked or rolled).  Right now there isn't much mental stimulation or physical activity going on in Spryte's world, so I have been trying to break the doldrums with obedience practise.  That is one great thing about obedience, it really works the mind, but it's not too tough on the body.  So we have been working all the Open and Utility exercises to varying degrees.  Spryte is loving the work and she is tired enough after that she sleeps for several hours.

This morning we had one of our practises and it went well. I wouldn't say she did perfect on everything, but we got to work through a few weak links and her understanding of the exercises will be a little stronger each time we work through a problem.

One example was on the retrieve over the high jump (jump is only a few inches off the ground). I wanted to work hard angles over the jump, so if the dumbbell falls wide, she will know how to find the jump after retrieving.  So the idea is to set the dog up on the far side of the jump, lateral to the jump, holding the dumbbell and then recalling her over the jump. She would have to make an effort to move towards the jump and take it, instead of coming straight which would bring her around the jump.

So I brought Spryte to the far side of the jump, put her in a sit/stay, gave her the dumbbell to hold and started walking away to the other side of the jump. As I'm walking I hear "thunk", I turn around and she's dropped the dumbbell on the ground. She gets a "what was that?" and I try it again.  Again I walk away and "thunk" she has dropped the dumbbell again. This happened once more and then it became clear, that we need to work on holding the dumbbell while I leave (she hates holding the dumbbell, so it's something I am constantly trying to build value for). 

So back to baby steps. Hold the dumbbell and I turn my back on her and turn back, Spryte is still holding the dumbbell, good girl! click and treat. Then I take one step and turn back, she is still holding the dumbbell, click and treat! I basically did this a few feet at a time until I could walk all the way to the other side of the jump and recall her over the jump with the dumbbell in her mouth.  This part she does perfectly as jumping is her favourite thing to do.

This was not what I expected to work on during my training session, but I'm flexible and work what needs working. In the end she has a better understanding of what her job is when  given a dumbbell and she has worked through failure until she found success.  Both are lessons well learnt and worth the effort.  And I enjoyed our time together training and bonding.  And I think she is happy for a chance to act like a real dog during her pregnancy term.