Mar
8
Weekend update
We had a great weekend at the NASA trial close to home. First, the dirt was great–no running on the beach. Trip went 4/4, with two 1sts in Standard, and 2 2nds in JWW. Both dogwalks were gorgeous, and one had me stuck behind because of the handling before getting onto the dogwalk. The courses had several tunnel discrimations, and she handled them all, with no flicking back into the wrong end of the tunnel after the RFP as she’s done a time or two in the past.
I really worked hard on visualization of the courses, and picturing them going perfectly. Like I said before, I’m trying to get my mental game back in shape. I feel like it worked very well for us as a team. I didn’t feel like I had any surprises out on course. I’ll continue to focus on that the next two weekends–I’m looking forward to some fun courses at another local trial this weekend.
Ticket did very well also. Not perfect like her mom, but some great moments. She had a brilliant first run of the weekend, Novice FAST, and smoked it. She got another leg Sunday to earn her NF title. She also got an Open JWW leg. I thought that particular course was tougher then the Excellent JWW course that day.
As far as what we need to work on–weave pole entrances with speed. She missed several, so we will revisit that. I also need to work more on rear crosses and driving my line when doing them. Ticket also came off the dogwalk both days in Standard. She stopped, but had 4 feet on the ground. If I wait, she will back up and put her feet back onto the contact (a wrong course). I don’t care about the fault at this point, but I’m not sure that’s the best course of action in the long run. I have seen dogs that think their contact behavior is to run off the board and back up onto it, and it’s not good. So, I released her, and let it go. It was definitely worse the second day though.
I’ve tried the last two days to get her excited enough to do the same thing and come off her contact in practice, but so far, no luck. I think if she does it this weekend her first run, I will wait for her to “re-find” her contact before going on. She definitely needs some sort of reminder at this point. She also self-released her teeter one run, but her others were all gorgeous (holding onto the board while it bounced). Her aframes were also nice, and her stays were solid. Watching myself on video, I need to do a better job on her stays of pausing before releasing so I don’t accidentally add a motion cue to her verbal release.
She’s obviously still a work in progress, but I’m still thrilled with how she’s doing. She’s at on of fun, and a run is certainly never boring. 🙂
