Sharing my pain

Gali and I are struggling to get our last utility leg. My frustration level is sky- high and my self-esteem is at an all time low. I was writing in my journal after failing yet another trial on Saturday "I am so frustrated, I feel like quitting. But I am too stubborn to quit!!"

So apparently I am not quitting, but this doesn't really solve my problem. How can I get Gali to pass the directed jumping exercise in the ring? If I was my own student I would say without hesitation, go back to basics and re-train the exercise.

In my mind Directed Jumping has three components to it: the go out, the sit and the jumping. I have pulled all three of these elements apart and I am working them separately. I am entered in another trial in 11 days. The Friday and Saturday before the trial I am going to run Gali through some run throughs and see where we are at. If need be I will forgo the trial, but I would really like to use the upcoming trial as a motivator for me to keep going. I will only pull from the trial if Gali is exhibiting signs of stress in training. So far things are going well. Here is what I have been doing:

Go outs: I am working go outs in different locations, using a chute to help Gali travel in a straight line. I have been including touch then sit or sit then touch. I started the first session at about 8-10 feet away and working my way back from there. Today I am going to set up 4 chutes, one for each wall in the training hall so that I can practice go outs in all directions and increase distance. My goal today will be 20-30 feet. Tomorrow's goal is 30-40 and so on until I can send him from 60 feet in any direction in the hall. I will also be adding the jumps into the picture tomorrow, but still only working on the go out. I hope to have all of the accomplished by Monday.

The Sit: On occasion Gali has laid down when asked to sit on a go out. I wanted to make this simple skill stronger and since I am retraining the exercise I might as well cover all my bases. I have been practising random sits while moving around the training hall. On the first day I got a drop first every time. This was not too much of a surprise given that Gali really believes that drop are fun and sits are well, just sits. During the next session I upped the reward and jackpotted the first sit I got, from there I got a higher ratio of sits vs drops. I also added in a food toss, so that Gali ran away from me to a piece of food and I asked him to sit as soon as he had eaten the food. This meant that I was back to a picture that looked like a go out. I could also address the fact that I wanted him to sit in place, no walking forward.

Directed Jumping: I came at this step very methodically, I started with my jumps two feet apart and Gali and I were 2 feet back from the jumps, me on one side and him on the other. I am using a signal only for this exercise. I may add the verbal back in, but I'll decide that later. I practiced first one jump then the other, rewarding after each jump. Then I started him from the opposite side so that he got to see the jumps on either side (bar on left, solid on the right and vise versa). The first session I gradually increased the distance out to 8 feet, so this also meant that Gali was 8 feet from the center of the jumps and I was also 8 feet from the jumps. Our first session progressed fantastically. No problems, no hesitations, lots of great attitude (from us both!!). The next day I started with my jumps 8 feet apart and ended up with them about 12 feet apart. He has not chosen the wrong direction and hasn't really seemed to even consider it. I did see a few times that Gali had to readjust his path to push out far enough to take the jump. But this could have more to do with wanting to take the more direct path to get the reward. However he was still working at making the right choice without any extra help from me. I also added into the mix raising both arms at the same time while keep directed eye contact with him, I did this to see what his reaction would be. He lunged forward and froze. It was what I had hoped for. This signal should mean nothing to him, so I was pretty happy with that. Next I did my jumping signals with direct eye contact and he had trouble with this. He came directly to me, which is what I thought would happen; direct eye contact usually means a recall. In training and trialling I always glance at the outside standard of the jump I want him to take. Breaking eye contact with him clearly has meaning to him. With this knowledge in place today the goal is to start with the jumps 12 feet apart and build to 16 feet. Tomorrow I will push the jumps out to 20 feet. Saturday I will include barriers on either side of the jump and Sunday I will add distractions such as toys on the ground, food containers and pressure from people moving around and possibly another dog working.

On Monday Gali and I are taking the day off!

Wish me luck!!