I am still learning about Reese and what motivates her, what she does to tell me she's getting something or she's confused. So far I've been hit or miss. I felt I learned a lot from editing and watching our video from the first week. She doesn't like switching from one task to another. Which can be hard... "hey, we have been backing up all session, I can't offer anything else right now". She seems to get distracted and quit working when she gets unsure or when I introduce something new.
Last night, I tried to shape laying down on a mat, we need some kind of laying down to get the frog behavior she needs for our online class. She tried for a few seconds to figure out what that mat was doing in her training area, then she lost interest and went and looked out the window, checked out the boarder dog crates, and just generally wouldn't participate. So I got Zen out. Which went differently than I wanted. I wanted to work with him a little and strike up some jealousy and have her barge into the session. Instead Zen got to practice his mat behavior with a puppy bouncing on his head. Then she lost interest in that, worked with me on a couple of reps, then kind of fizzled out again. Zen loved all of it and got to do some conditioning work and heeling also. He thought this was great fun, and "puppy, what puppy?!" he said I can't distract him with a silly puppy.
Then I did dog nails again. Which Reese didn't care for. She fought a little more this time, but all 4 feet are done, and I'll do them again in a couple of days.
Oddly enough, this morning I get out the mat, bring it into the living room and Reese was game to play. I got the down on the mat, and even some small stretches towards frog, so I ended the session. We will do another morning session before work, probably with something different. After her tiny meltdowns, the next session is usually 100% better, so I'm hoping she can work through that and learn to continue offering even when she isn't too sure.
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