#training fail

A uhhh, less successful day at the river, a photo story in three parts. We tried again to go the river, and Mary was actually much more agreeable to it. I brought the target stick and was really able to guide her to the bank, and so while she still didn't want to go in, she did get closer to the bank, and even splashed her face around in the water a bit! You can still see the tension in her face, but she was holding it together and was still willing to at least hang out.

However, that all changed when a group of about 20 kayaks came floating down the river. Mary was absolutely not about that, and with her already being uncertain, it pushed her straight over threshold. It's a private trail to get to the river, and I wasn't too concerned with her running away into the river, so I had her off lead like usual. I could tell she was already too far into her fear response to hold it together and wait it out, especially since the kayakers were obviously going to continue getting closer and closer at a rate I couldn't control and give her recovery time. So instead of throwing the lead back on and fighting her like a kite, I just maneuvered her so she was facing the trail entrance, and let her go. She bolted, and you can see in photo 2 if you squint where she ran out the trail and was waiting to see if I was coming. I had dropped my target stick at and her lead by the river so I had to go back for those, and when she saw me take a step back, she said 👋👋 and continued down the trail lol.

Fail compilation from the other day with Mary.  Our first session in a while, and she was not feeling it. One thing I’ve been working on recently is being patient and respecting her no.  I allow her to leave when she chooses without retribution, but that also means I literally stand around and just have to wait for 5 minutes at a time lol. In this session, she leaves both times when I ask her to stretch towards her hind feet, so it was pretty clear she was not doing that today, so I end the session with an easier stretch and call it good.  Working on establishing clear start and stop cues to try and cut down on her anxiety, start cue is touch my hand when I hold it out paired with a verbal “touch”, and end cue is me turning towards her shoulder and rubbing/scratching it paired with a verbal “All done, no more.”

AHHHH! SHE DID SO WELL! Down stays is the trick she HATES the most. I got so far and I was REALLY pushing her limits by slow walking/skipping/dancing/being a general idiot.