1-21-2022 Week 1, Day 5 Our 2nd Marysvale TrainingAdventure!

Well, Week 2, Day 5 was a cold, but not a windy day in Marysvale, UT with a fresh dusting of snow. So cold, but not brutal cold and no ice so we were all grateful. 

First the warmup.  Hannah is not YET taking Sugar's intolerance of her approaching him inappropriately seriously. The last 2 times Sugar has come with Hannah, she has faced Sugar's ire, displeasure and NOT heeded his warnings to "BACK OFF!" so she's gotten yelled at and nipped.  More than once.

And here's some REALLY old photos of Sugar's UGLY warning STANCE and his UGLY FACE!!!

BACK OFF NOW! (When Sugar could move a whole lot better)

WHAT IS IT?

DO NOT mess with me little one.

Then, once Hannah was convinced messing with Sugar was quite foolish, I did a few Recalls. 

Finally, got everything set up and we did the first LL training session using multiple moving distractions and then planted distractions.

1st LL training session:

All in all, I was very pleased that during this video, Hannah opted to NOT be foolish and instead choose to remain close to me and check in.

AWESOME check in by Hannah!!

Then we relocated to a new training area. 

Hannah did well so I opted to do her Week 1 EXAM: Readiness Test which she passed with flying colors-:) 

WEEK 1 EXAM: Readiness Test

So, I then coached Gayle and Olive on their Week 5 EXAM # 2 mechanics for nearly 30 minutes. Hannah had passed the Week 1 LL EXAM and Jessi and I have been for the past few days introducing the Week 2 material. I worked Hannah to demo to Gayle the footwork and lo'n'behold, Hannah had a breakdown as she perceived something was a MONSTER##$@!.   It took me nearly 15 minutes to work Hannah through her perception to experience success.  I will share those videos when the class gets to Week 2 on Wednesday. Hannah is ahead of her class because we started her 3 days before her class started and because Jessi and I are experienced KMODT handlers, so a learning dog learns faster than a dog when their owner is just learning their own mechanics.

Anyway, a soft dog would have melted under my handling, but Hannah is tough minded and a very capable young dog.  She got BETTER as I worked her thru her perception and after that work, she did another short session with me and there was NO breakdown or MONSTER reaction at all. What a courageous dog Hannah is, I so admire and respect her ability to learn, to handle a MONSTER, to learn to work despite the MONSTER and do so successfully in just a few minutes.   

We did another LL session again, then I switched her to Cool Down and she did great. Course there were STICKS everywhere and her focus was, 'GET the sticks' so she ignored Olive, Sugar and Kara.

 

 All in all, a VERY successful training day for Hannah. Despite how hard the MONSTER WAS IN HAVING TO WORK THRU her perception, Hannah came through with flying colors.

When I got her home and, in her kennel, for the first time EVER, she buried her face in my chest as I squatted down and leaned her head into my chest. She didn't move, just kept her face there so I stayed close and comforted her, told her what a good job she had done, and how much I appreciated her bravery to overcome that MONSTER.  We stayed like that, just Hannah and I, for several quiet special moments. 

I am soooo very proud of her. 

Roxanne