Zumi- Bad Training Habit

Zumi still struggling on learning to adjust her stride for running dogwalk training.  Doing amazing though at zero leaps, all misses are striding over.  Channel weave pole training is going well.  The poles are still very wide and we're about 80% accurate on entries from 10:30 to 2:30.  Going further down the clock isn't happening without help from my body being in the way :)

But in our training sessions I've discovered another naughty problem for the Duck.  Zumi has recently started blowing off a thrown toy to go in search of another one.  She runs after the thrown toy then starts air sniffing and searching for something better.  I didn't think it was that big of a deal when she immediately found a toy hidden in the grass so I switched to playing with that one.  And in doing so I created a bad habit.  Several more times since that first decision Zumi has tried to go off hunting for a new toy in the middle of a session, even if no obvious toy exists.  Even her favorite toys weren't immune to the switch habit.

At first I tried doing a distance down and giving a mini time out before resuming.  After 2 downs I had to quit the session.  And trained Vito.  That pissed her off!  Knock on wood our problem is going away.  I think I ended the session a total of 3 times since the habit started and then just did one down time out on a 4th session.  She's had a few sessions since then with no signs of wandering.

It doesn't really bother me that she wants to switch toys.  I like variety and mixing things up is just fine!  But it does bother me that Zumi will disengage in the middle of a training session to find something better to do.  Training time is a privilege so if she doesn't want to work than she loses her turn.  I have made a mental note though of her preference and will sometimes bring 2 toys out to a training session so I can choose to switch