HOLY REALIZATION, BATMAN!!

How did I not really notice this before? I must be blind. 

I was just watching the standard videos from the weekend again.  The scene:

The Dog. The Dogwalk.

She runs. I run. I catch up. She slows up. I pass. She runs again. Depending on the point of passage, this is resulting in the leap. 

So obvious!

In the first video I caught up and passed her at the point she was closing in on the yellow with her head down, so we both met at point A- the yellow.  This was a nice transition.  

In the second video, I caught up about halfway on the downward side and you can SEE her hitch her stride, then I passed her at the point where she had not committed to the remainder of the zone (point B, or "Before the yellow"). She ran again, which in her rush equaled a leap. Luckily, she launched from the yellow, but still. 

This tells me a lot- she's watching me, not doing the task; she doesn't really get the downward plank performance (or 'gets' something different from what I wanted); I am throwing her stride off even worse when I slow up out of 'don't miss the contact!' nerves... to name a few.

I knew she was sensitive. I knew she was pretty in tune, but that's easy to forget because she is SO obstacle focus. But this is just plain weird. It's like she is a remote control car that I'm running via brain waves instead of a remote. All of a sudden, I have a very keen awareness of all the little cues I've been giving her that are getting these strange show performances on the dogwalk.  I think besides showing her to watch me, not the job, I have also given her the idea that she shouldn't bother finishing the DW performance if she knows what is next. Yay me! Good job! 

Ugh. I think I will let The Dog have an owner break while I go and figure this out on some other victim.

Ladies and gentleman, my next agility project:

The Blob Fish. 

Perhaps I will be able to train this thing without psychologically damaging it.