Ella and I practiced front and rear crosses last night. She gets very excited when I bring the treat bag out and jumps onto the couch and lies down. I have to spend a minute or two getting her to stay on the floor so that we can train.
The beginning step of a front cross is quite easy for us to practice, since she stays in place while I do my footwork. Since one of the skills for Rally is for her to sit while I walk around her, she has this first step down!
Rear crosses were harder. I have been focusing on rear crosses where Ella turns to the right. I hold the treat in my right hand for right turns and my left hand for left turns.
She really resisted turning to the right. Funny, since turning to the left was easy and fun for her. For a while, I thought that it might be a physical limitation. Maybe it pained her to turn in a small circle to the right. Every time we would get to 3 o’clock, she would sit.
Since she will touch a target stick, I decided to try that next. I asked her to touch and she would follow the stick to about 4 o’clock and then stop following. We tried this a few times and it wasn’t really working. She and I will have to work on following a target stick farther and in more complex patterns.
I finally figured out that she thought that I wanted her to sit, since she was originally taught sit by holding the treat over her head. When she was at my side and the lure reached 3, it was above her head, just because of her size and how far I was bending.
As soon as I realized this, I lowered the treat as I lured her in a circle and – lo! She turned all the way. I clicked and she got a jackpot. We worked on this about 10 more times. Each time that she turned, her body became more fluid.
We ended the session with some puppy sit ups.
Robbie practiced down a few times. Then, he had a bath.
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