Well, I’ve been slacking in posting for a while, but we’re still working!
Laev was getting over the top on her blind searches and getting dirty in the blind, so we’ve dropped back to clean hold and barks, increasing distance again so that we’ll be able to combine that with the searches. Right now the protocol is that when she cheats or attempts to cheat, I remove her from the blind (she’s on a long line) and start completely over again. No “corrections” which then allow her to continue toward the end reinforcement; all that does is teach her to take a few collar hits and go on without thinking.
She’s also getting a bit better at calm holds and cleaner (but far from perfect) outs on the field. She’s much better at holding nicely after a good hard fight than a quick slip of the sleeve, so we’re making sure to make her work to win it!
In other news, she’s having a hard time with the moving sit. Moving down? No sweat! She’s great at that. But the moving sit is really tough; we keep getting either a stand or a down. I need to find a way to break that down into a smaller learning piece, but it’s not working yet.
