Wow! PP lesson and LOTS of thresholds!

My brain hurts!!

We had our lesson with PP Claire Burgess today and it was the most intense two hours I have had lately. Immense fun and I have learned such a lot. Claire is a great teacher, she has such a friendly smile and great sense of humour. In fact she was just perfect lol.

In my excitement I dragged all the toys I had to the arena and we didn't play with any of them! I was asked to take the green ball out later on...and the pedestal stayed by the fence lol.

This lessons focus was on being particular after Sandra and I showed what we could do with Bertie and Breeze. As expected B went very introverted when others came to give lessons in the arena. I was amazed later on when Claire said she knew B likes to nap by the way she couldn't circle!

I was very pleased to know that I am giving B exactly what she needs and that we are very well matched as partners. Made me feel very proud of myself, Breeze and our achievements. Also that I have taught Sandra and Bert well too. I had a real BFO moment when Claire pointed out how many thresholds B has! Of course!! Why didn't I see it too!? Just on the circle, let alone everywhere else! It didn't take long for me to get the idea of being particular about B doing exactly as I asked and rewarding the slightest try. I also have to try and ask even more quietly than I am, without even lifting the c/s more than a fraction. I have been working on this lately, just need to refine it even more. Maybe time to find the bell from the old L2!

Breeze went introverted quite often. I definitely blew her mind by letting her rest exactly when she needed it and not allowing her to deviate from what I asked but in a polite and passive way. Having pushed her to her limits in play over the last 5 months just to see how far she would go it's now time to help her get past her thresholds even more than I have been doing. I knew she liked to do sideways, it's her comfort zone where she feels clever and confident. She will offer this every time I ask her to do something she can't.

By the end she had just begun to relax on the circle so it was time to quit that. The look on her face was fantastic. She looked so soft and relaxed. I don't think I have seen that look before when we have played circle game!

Backwards over a pole brought up more thresholds and I need to do more with asking her to come to me i.e.draw. She could back up around the pole but sending her over the pole was too much to begin with. We did get it but as soon as she did this she had to try and side pass the nearby jump side. When I got particular and asked her to come in and not side pass it, she did but it blew her mind and she went introverted for ages.

This is how she stayed for ages while we three humans got together to talk about what we had learned. She kept blinking and licking and chewing and then she blew out really loudly, spraying me with snot lol. That's my little RBI!