Well, I am starting to focus more on Trip and getting her ready for Nationals and World Team Tryouts. I’m trying to work on more international-style handling challenges, which Trip generally does well with if I remember what the heck *I’m* doing. I’m keeping a list of specific sequences we need to work on to tighten up a bit, and work on some courses designed by this year’s FCI judges.
Another thing that I’m working on is proofing Trip’s running dogwalk. I need to be able to trust that she’s going to nail it no matter what I’m doing on the ground. To that end, I’ve committed to doing 50 reps/week between now and Nationals/Tryouts. Since her dogwalk is pretty much stride dependent (anything but 3 strides on the downside is a fail), I have to believe that those extra reps will help us. Of course, we can’t go do 50 reps in one day. I’m doing 5-10 at a time, spread out over the week. Got 50+ in this week without too much effort, so I think I’ve got my schedule figured out so it’s doable. It’s tougher when we’re showing on the weekend, but I’ve got a little more daylight in the evening now if I get off work on time to come home and get some reps in, and my day off to get two sets in.
Ticket is doing great as well. I really need to do a better job of trusting that she has learned some skills along the way, and not baby her all the time. I was working her on some tough sequences this evening (push throughs, 270s, etc), and she was amazing. She is SO fast though–I don’t know how I’m ever going to keep up with her.
I’m very excited to be heading to LA to show this weekend. I’ll get to see all my Tripletts in one place, run Ticket in her second show, and visit with my LA friends. It’s going to be a fun time, so I’m excited. It’s also a small, laid-back show, with one ring running at a time, so no conflicts. Hopefully Ticket will make some progress towards her Novice titles–I dread the idea of being spread out across Novice, Open, AND Excellent…
Happy Training!
I was thinking about finding *balance* in agility this weekend. I think it’s something that I’ve struggled with personally lately, and I’m still not sure what to do about it. Specifically, I’m talking about competing and pushing for the tightest turns, the best lines, and the most speed, while still somehow enjoying the moment with your dog and having fun. I had a bit of a meltdown moment this weekend with poor Trip, where I was SO angry with her about a blown run. Certainly we both had some blame in how the run went bad, but I was not nice to her afterwords, and I’m not proud of the way I acted. Five minutes afterwords, I took her out of her crate and apologized, and took her outside to play frisbee. But still, not good for your relationship with your dog. I know that, but I’m also human.
It did get to me thinking about balancing all of these reasons why we do agility. The standard answer is “we do agility for something fun to do with our dog.” But that’s rarely a whole truth. If we just wanted something fun to do with our dog, we’d stay home and play agility in the backyard, and save the money that goes into entering competitions. So, for me, I’m a competitive person. I played soccer in high school and college. I enjoy socializing with agility folks. And I love competing with my dog and doing well. I’m blessed to have a phenomenal girl who is competitive with just about any dog in the country. And I have goals for her–Nationals Finals, World Team, etc.
Which can put a lot of pressure on those normal trial weekend runs. I’m trying to improve my handling, analyze the best lines, all in the hope that it will help me in the bigger competitions. But feeling like you have to gun for 1st every run is a lot of pressure to maintain every run of every show. It gets to the point where a Q just isn’t enough–I’m analyzing every turn, every cross, every choice I make on course, to try to determine if that was the absolute fastest we could run it. And “enjoying the run with your dog” sometimes goes out the window.
So, I’m back to balance. How do I balance those big goals with loving this dog with all my heart, and knowing that one day, I would give anything for the chance to run her again, mistakes and all? Well, I’m going to try to have smaller goals–tight turn here, good acceleration there, etc. Focusing on winning is a recipe for disaster–we compete against some awesome dogs, and will just set ourselves up for failure if second place is a disappointment. I know I need to focus on prepping for the big events and handling clearly and well. Of course, I need that positive reinforcement of the Q as much as the next person, but I do think I’ve managed to move beyond handling *for* a Q and am able to make decisions that are consistent within my system, even though they may not always be the *easiest* decisions to make. I also need to avoid “overhandling” courses–I think now that I actually remember to use decel to improve a turn, I sometimes overuse it, and tightening every single turn (and therefore losing speed on every turn) isn’t the fastest way to go.
I also found Trip’s frisbee in her old dog bag–I couldn’t tell you the last time I played frisbee with her, and it’s her favorite game. She’s the only dog I have that really loves it, and I just let that toy disappear. So Trip got to play frisbee this weekend, and I’m also making it a goal to play frisbee with her after every run. It may not happen now that I’m running 3 dogs again, but you better believe she’ll be seeing that toy every weekend, just me and her. I know it’s a small thing, but it’s a reminder to me of how much I love this dog, and how she always gives me everything she can, despite my mistakes and flaws. And I owe her the same thing.
Agility Mental Management by .
Well, the day finally arrived–Ticket’s very first agility trial. I’m VERY happy with how she did, and can’t wait to do it again (2 weeks in New Iberia).
Ticket was 3/5, with 1st place Qs in Novice FAST and Standard on Saturday, and Novice JWW on Sunday. She held every stay beautifully. She went from knocking 3 bars in JWW on Saturday to keeping them all up and reading every rear cross in JWW on Sunday. She had two beautiful dogwalk contacts, and realized just in time that she was on a teeter and slid to a stop the one time she did that contact. She only missed one weave pole entrance, at the beginning of a course where we were having communication issues. She was fast. 🙂
The less then stellar things–her aframes were iffy. She didn’t get faulted in Standard on Saturday, but it wasn’t good–MAYBE a toenail in. The aframe is a work in progress, and right now, it’s the iffiest piece of equipment we do. It’s frustrating, but I’m going to stick with the running for awhile longer and see if we can make it work. If she’s repeatedly faulted for it, then I’m going to retrain a stop. She completely ran one dogwalk in her final standard run. In watching the video, I do think she was slowing down to stop, but then caught sight of the chute straight ahead and lost her mind (she is a huge tunnel sucker). She got the walk of shame for that–I’ve been down that road before and I’m not making that mistake again.
I was surprised that she seemed hesitant/tentative the first few runs when we walked in the ring. I especially noticed it in FAST, where she was looking around before the run, did the dogwalk slow, etc. She definitely knew it was different then practice. I’m not surprised in seeing that in a baby dog, but I was a little surprised seeing it in Ticket, since “tentative” isn’t in her personality. She wasn’t distracted-if anything, it make her OVERLY focused on me. I think that was the cause of the bars in JWW–she was looking at me and barking.
Despite those minor mishaps, I am THRILLED with her debut. She ran great, got faster as the weekend went on and she got more confident, and was a great baby dog. I can’t wait to do it again–it’s so much fun starting a new dog.
