Just "Dandy"

Today we ran into our first frustrating training session.  I went out to the back yard to play around on the puppy dogwalk, the tunnel and a few jump standards.  Simple enough, it's all stuff we've done before.  Oh, but this was the first time doing it with fresh dandelions in the yard!  They overwhelmed Shasta.  As I said, I think it's possible to have too high of a food motivation.  And Shasta considered them food.

I tried doing simple things close to me, I tried waiting it out, I tried verbal "icks", I tried ignoring her, I tried running to a different part of the yard without the dandelions, I tried being us upbeat as I can be.  I could not find a way to be more interesting than those dandelions.  Ugh. 

I'm not panicked over it.  I know that long term it's not going to be an issue.  Still, it was a little disappointing and a little frustrating to deal with it in the short term.  And it's really tough not to personalize it, to feel like she is "choosing them over me".  In a rational moment I know that's silly but it's still the initial, emotional reaction.

We quit the session without a great deal of success.  We did have some success running the puppy dogwalk and getting the bottom position on one side of it without any dandelions around (well, none remaining after she ate them!). 

We called it quits, and I put together our full size but adjustable teeter in the yard, setting it at the lowest setting (nearly lying flat on the ground).  I brought her back out, did about 5-8 "pounces" on the teeter, had success and called it quits again.  

On the plus side, at the show today, it seemed as though the left turn was starting to kick in.  To go along with being a wonderful puppy at the show again and lying at my feet as I type this post.