Red Gate fun match: gambling fun and (gasp) leading out!

Walter and Lucy shared a spot at today's fun match. Lucy ran the two standards, and Walter took the two gamblers runs. You get two minutes in each run to do whatever the heck you want. I used the time to mostly practice the mini gambles and of course give a try at the end gambles.

Hey guess what, I led out on both of his runs! And guess what, he didn't self-release! Well, on his second run he did scoot forward somewhat, but still. I was very glad. Maybe, just maybe I'll try leading out on him more often in trials, but only if there's a real advantage to doing so, and no more than once per trial at first. (In a year of trials I've only led out on him once, this past January to help him get a tunnel/frame discrimination since those are a definite weakness in our skill set.)

Played around with the jump-teeter-jump mini-gamble. He had no trouble doing the teeter at a distance; we hadn't practiced that sort of thing since the fall so I was glad to see him look so confident.

For the end-gamble, in his first run we did the Advanced version: frame, tunnel, jump. Wasn't sure how he'd handle the lateral distance with the frame but he seemed fine with it. In his second run we did the Masters version: tunnel under the frame, jump, frame, tunnel, jump (last three obstacles same as Advanced). He got both on his first try, yay :-) (although as far as Masters gambles go, that's not exactly a tricky one) I might finally consider entering him in Masters Gamblers this summer or fall, but only after he has a much better handle on discriminations and "out".

For fun, here's a short video from his first run.


Oh yeah, and he had no hesitation at all on the dogwalk today. Hopefully he remembers a happy dogwalk at his next trial.