{"id":2380,"date":"2014-01-05T17:15:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T22:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/?p=2380"},"modified":"2014-01-05T17:15:21","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T22:15:21","slug":"testing-1-2-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/2014\/01\/05\/testing-1-2-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing 1. . .2. . .3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You can learn a lot from failure.  When you trial your dog you learn what you know and figure out what you still need to work on.  No surprise for us, Risa&#8217;s lack of focus is still a huge issue.<\/p>\n<p>We were supposed to trial both days this weekend but things didn&#8217;t work out that way.  So it was just Sunday and an attempt at her first RAE leg.  I honestly do not care if we ever earn that RAE.  However, is a goal to reach for and gives us something to do that is local.  I don&#8217;t need to drive far to find AKC trials!  \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>Her Excellent run was a little sketchy.  There were moments when she was definitely connected with me and we looked good.  Then there were times she wandered off.  We probably would have had a better score had she been able to do the back up 3 steps (we&#8217;re still working on perfecting this so I&#8217;m not surprised here) and had she not stood up as I came back to her on a sit\/stay.  We managed a 72; the minimum score needed to qualify is 70.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Dijsve_NNYA?list=UUMBnJONYwvjJw-axHRn5Dew\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t pretty but it was a Q!  I looked over the Advanced course and knew she could do it.  There wasn&#8217;t a sign she couldn&#8217;t perform and it was a much shorter and simpler course than the Excellent course.  I also figured she&#8217;d be a bit more comfortable the second time through since she does still get stressed out at competitive venues.<\/p>\n<p>We were excused from the course.  A dog came very close to the ring gates while we were working and she took off after it.  (Actually, it was a Sunday at this trial last year when she was also excused for pretty much the same reason.)  Surprisingly, I was able to get her back and working but it did not last.  Eventually, the judge decided she was just too unfocused and asked us to leave.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_QN-gb20NLA?list=UUMBnJONYwvjJw-axHRn5Dew\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Even though it was not a good run, there was a lot of good there.  Risa did not have a huge reactive meltdown.  She started, yes.  But then switched to curiosity.  She also came back and worked with me after it.  Risa remained thinking.  It wasn&#8217;t enough but it shows that the hard work we&#8217;ve put in is paying off.  \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>However, it seems that just taking classes regularly is not enough to help Risa&#8217;s focus issues.  When the world is crazy, she doesn&#8217;t have enough incentive to stay connected with me.  (And her new-found joy of checking out other dogs isn&#8217;t helping either though I hesitate to find fault with it given her history.)  Now I know what I need to do.  We really need to start working on focus in very distracting environments.  Especially around dogs.  Unfortunately, I am unsure how exactly I&#8217;m going to do this.  What I really need are some friends with and without dogs who are willing to work with us on very specific issues.  Something I won&#8217;t find in the classes we typically take.  I have no friends to enlist.<\/p>\n<p>So, for now, I plan on taking her to her least favorite place to work: pet stores.  It&#8217;s the closest thing I have to a super distracting (and stressful) environment.  I think at least once a week should help and might even help her overcome her fear of them.  Once the weather improves, we will probably be able to find other opportunities as well.  I just hope I can do enough to improve her concentration.  She&#8217;s really a spectacular rally dog.  It&#8217;s just not very easy to see trial-time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can learn a lot from failure. When you trial your dog you learn what you know and figure out what you still need to work on. No surprise for us, Risa&#8217;s lack of focus is still a huge issue. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/2014\/01\/05\/testing-1-2-3\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,18,8,9,4,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2380"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2382,"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions\/2382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dancingcavy.com\/mysterisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}