Yucky-Stuff-On-Ground-Zen

There's this really yucky-looking thing on the ground on one of our walks. I won't even try to describe it for you. We've come across it several times now, and each time it sucks Luna's nose right in. Today the yucky thing was in the middle of the path instead of by the edge (where I don't see it before it's too late), and I had my trainer hat on. I realized that this was a great opportunity to work Zen.

Yup, first pass and Luna's nose went right down on it. Kept going past, then turned back and waited for a choice; are you gonna go for it or will you look at me? Ah, said Luna, this is a ZEN thing! She did everything in her power to NOT put her nose down. She looked at me. She went around it in an arch. She looked at it with her nose tucked to her chest. She sniffed the ground instead of the thing. I didn't click for sniffing the ground or those times (3 or 4) when she couldn't keep her nose off it. I was never between her and the thing, and considering that, she did an awesome job. We came at it from all angles; north, south, east, west. She tried really hard and we did many, many reps. I was hoping to be able to quit at a point where she stopped noticing the thing, but that was too much to ask. Still, I think she was at least 70% correct on keeping her nose to herself.

When we continued our walk, I thought about how I could make this more clear to her. Aha! Here's a new rule for interesting stuff on the ground; look at mom!

Now I'm hoping it's still there tomorrow, so we can work it again and I can apply my new criteria. Clicking only when she looks at me and not progressing to walking past and over the thing until she can get 9/10 correct when just standing near it.

Oh, and I learned that our "Go Around" cue is completely gone. She has NO clue. I'm sure that's because I'm always asking her to "Paws Up" on all objects that can double as "Go Around's". So, Re-teaching is in order, and a good opportunity to teach it to both sides on the cues "Away" and "Come By".

Funny how you just keep trying the cue, hoping that maybe, by some stroke of luck, she suddenly remembers what it means...