We had great fun at ClickerExpo, and I was quite proud of Laev. I realized on the second day this was a hugely new experience for her — while we’ve done several trials, she’s never really been in a multi-dog environment that was closely packed before, not since puppy class when she just 12 weeks old or so. She hasn’t done regular group classes or multi-dog sessions outside of a trial environment; her training is almost entirely individual. So her good behavior in the most crowded ClickerExpo I’ve ever seen was quite gratifying to me! I reinforced so heavily that I ran low on treats. 🙂
Thanks to everyone who said hi! It was nice to meet so many in person who had been just names on a computer screen.
Laev and Shakespeare and I have a APDT/CDSP weekend approaching, and I actually need to teach a couple of new behaviors for that. I should get a move on! But more worrisome is that I also need to be preparing for our BH. This will be our second try, since we failed the first one, and it has me worried — Laev and I haven’t been working on that kind of heelwork, and the weather here has taken a serious turn for the worse which is making it hard to practice long heeling patterns. (The BH uses most of a football field, and everything around here is under water!) I feel less prepared for this one than I did last fall!
Morgan Spector showed video of our failed BH in his obedience seminar at the March ClickerExpo. I wasn’t there (I was signed up for another Learning Lab at the time), but for the rest of the weekend people would recognize Laev and pull me aside in the hallway: “You were awfully brave to let us see that.” /grin/ Well, it wasn’t that bad — everybody’s messed up sometime — and I had confidence that the next outing would be better. Well, now I’m not so sure, and I need practice time. But I need a place to practice, too!
Going out now to run errands, meet friends for lunch, and work Laev in a parking lot. It’s not a football field, but it might not have standing water.
