Lola and I are trialing this weekend and were working on equipment during practice tonight . For the past couple of weeks we've been working on handling skills, which is great for me, but usually right before a trial I like to work her on the dogwalk, the weaves, the table, and a few jumps just to see where she's at mentally and get in some last minute tweaks if I can.
Our normal equipment routine consists of using treats and a tug toy, both of which make her very happy. Tonight in the smelly dirty unheated barn, her tug toy got especially gross with dirt and her enthusiasm for grabbing it as a prize waned with each supposed reinforcing toss.
I needed to borrow a toy from Andrea. I hated to ask but the trial is only four days away and practicing with an undesirable tug toy would not do! I grabbed Phoenix's squeaky bowling pin* and proceeding to work the dogwalk with Lola.
*
I blew her mind with the very first squeak.
Her eyes bugged out of her head, her tail shot straight up as if propelled by an electric current and she bounced of the ground like it was covered with hot coals. MUST KILL SQUEAK! I sent her to the dog walk and she flew over it with little regard to her safety and her contacts.
MUST KILL SQUEAK! What was this madness?
Let me explain my astonishment. Normally I have an easygoing albeit excited, happy to play dog. She's motivated to weave well enough by toys and has lovely 2 on 2 off contacts for the right treats. I react smugly when my agility friends speak of spastic Border Collies and think to myself that I must be a good trainer since my dog is problem free. Sure there are mistakes here and there, but her demeanor remains relatively calm throughout class and we can work through the kinks easily enough.
MUST KILL SQUEAK! With those 3 words, Lola officially joined the ranks of super spazz. She jumped on me, she leapt for the toy, she raced through a tunnel, she parachuted off of the dogwalk, and this was all while I was trying to get her to sit. That toy definitely breathed new life into our training session. MUST KILL SQUEAK! My sense of accomplishment when she did effectively perform what was asked of her was matched only by her sense of satisfaction at being rewarded with the chance to kill the squeak toy.
Practice was so much fun and so productive that I'm going out today to invest in one of these:
THE BALL WITH FEET IS GOING TO BLOW HER MIND.
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