Sei worked on a bit of the boring stuff today (downs, hand touches, waiting while we eat, etc), but the fun part of today was disc!
Disc with Sei is just so fun! I bring the discs out every now and again to see how he feels about them, and last night he decided that he liked them WAY more than before! We worked on some out of hand takes with two discs (he takes one disc from my hand, and another one appears! So he comes back, dropping the first to get the second, so I pick up the first. Repeat). Then I was just throwing some for him to fetch. Normally the disc hits the ground before he gets to it, but this time, he jumped way up in the air and snagged it! His first disc catch! I don’t want him jumping like that regularly at this age, and now I will be more thoughtful with my throws in the future knowing that jumping wildly for discs is in his behaviour repertoire, but it was pretty cool to see him do!
This morning we worked more on the two disc game, and I started adding a short little floaty toss right in front of me instead of holding the disc. This added a number of complications. One, I had figure out where Sei was, and how fast he was moving to determine when I needed to toss the disc in the air such that he had enough time to see the disc, understand to catch it instead of taking it from my hand, and figure out what he needed to do with his body to catch it. Two, to make that process easier for Sei, I wanted to give him a cue in advance of tossing the disc, so he knew where it would be going. This cue had to be timed right too.
Not shockingly, I quickly learned that my timing is pretty awful.
I was late with my catch cue a lot, which led to Sei missing the disc, jumping wildly for it, or running into it with his feet or chest. Poor boy. I found it really hard to judge his speed when he was running towards me. We haven’t played this kind of game enough for me to have a good feel for his gait (not to mention he is growing and changing continually at this stage). He also is not practiced at this, so needs more time to process than an older dog might. I’m also still learning how to throw the discs with any kind of proficiency, so I don’t have a good feel for how long it takes me to execute a throw, and how long a disc will hang in the air.
After some messy rounds, we got a few really nice catches strung together with a beautiful flow. That feeling is the same way I felt when I started Perrin in agility. Team work, and partnership. Both halves of the team are working together with different skill sets to make it happen. Those couple of catches have made me happy all day.
We worked a little bit more when I got home. It wasn’t quite as good a session (he was a bit worked up after being let out for the first time in 5 hours), but Im going to put it here for future reference. It is unedited except for trimming the ends off. My video editing and storage computer had an unfortunate run in with some liquid, so until (or if) it is back up and running, video will be minimal.
Perrin worked on a few tricks that he knows like leg weaves and hitting a bass drum, but not anything new, or overly fun for him. Poor guy is still recuperating with his hot spot.
Adventures in Dog Training 