Saturday was odd. On her second session, Laev ran past the blind *twice* instead of going to the helper for a hold and bark. What? I could not even conceive of such a thing! That would mean she wasn’t heading directly for the helper and the sleeve. What the heck?
So we did a rep where Randy peeked out of the blind and stimulated her a little (that means he made some noise and movement, so that she knew he was there and ready to play the game) and then she was sent directly to a bite, no holding first. Then she did a perfect repetition on the fourth time, which you can see below.
Of course, I didn’t get any video of the first session, in which she gave perfect rep after perfect rep. Of course.
Monday night, she did not repeat the mistakes of running by the blind, so I don’t know why that showed up just randomly. Weird.
And here’s a little photo essay of what a hold and bark looks like, for those who don’t want to download the video:
Laev comes skidding into the blind….
…the barking begins….
…and usually involves bouncing while vocalizing….
…and finally the helper moves and she may bite.
The gates are still present in case they’re needed, if she forgets to “hold,” but she’s doing much better. They’ll be faded out soon.
After bitework we did water retrieves; Laev was TERRIBLY distracted by the German Shepherd pups working on either side of her and really didn’t do as well as I’d expected. Okay, she’s never done water retrieves before, but still! she was just really, really into barking at the other dogs as they jumped and splashed and ran. Something I’m going to have to work on, I see.
After all that, Laev was tired. How tired? Well, here’s something you’ll probably never see again….
That’s a french fry lying next to her muzzle. She was so out, she didn’t notice when we dropped a treat into each crate. Wow!
And just how tightly do Dobes coil? My friend Bev says any Doberman can fit in a bushel basket, but I think they can go smaller yet. My car crates are 36″ x 21″ and here’s Laev asleep on the way home:
Note that she’s lying across the short side of the crate, just 21″ wide. This is why people give me odd looks when I’m buying mid-sized crates and houses for my large dogs!
