Agility is so much fun and what I learned last weekend
From April 4 - 6
What a weekend!!!! I had a three day trial with Rigal and Whisp. It was my first outdoors trial with Rigal and with Whisper since we've been working on de-stressing. Overall it went pretty well.
Friday was a monsoon. I scratched Whisper from Standard. It was cold and wet and the mud 4" deep. I ran Rigal who did pretty well considering. He took an off course which I didn't bother to correct because I wanted to keep him safe. What I learned... running in the rain ain't so bad. With Whisper, I'm not sure if she's up to the kind of conditions we faced Friday though.
It cleared a bit for Jumpers. Whisper stressed in the poles a bit and I took her out of the ring, but I wasn't worried.
The forecast for Saturday was rain in the morning then cloudy and showers in the afternoon. I pulled Whisper from Standard because the course was mucky but then they mulched it but after we walked and I had already scratched her. I ran it with Rigal and it was a fun course and wish I could have run it with Whisper. What I learned... don't scratch until gate time.
Saturday afternoon, the clouds lifted and it was a gorgeous warm spring afternoon. The jumpers course was fun, Whisper was happy but refused her poles so we didn't Q but she was pretty fast and barking on course. Rigal was a spazz. I went to rent a ring to practice weaves with both dogs after the trial. I came home and my face was sunburned BAD. What I learned...don't forget the sunglasses and sun screen and car shades even if the weather doesn't call for a nice day.
The courses were gorgeous all weekend. This morning in Standard Rigal was a spazz again. Instead of calling his name and trying to get him back to me, I stood still and waited for him to notice I wasn't running with him. He came back to me and we got to do another small sequence before he went nuts and I tried standing still again. It also worked this afternoon when he went out of his way not to take the obvious tunnel entrance (why, oh why can't he get the discrimination when I need him to and then do something crazy when it's an easy entrance???). He only ran off course twice rather than multiple times. What I learned... the consequence for Rigal is to NOT have me run with him if he does the wrong thing and it wasn't my fault.
Whisper gets freaked at the wind. It was cloudy, cold and windy and I thought she would have a problem running - - NOT. She was zoomie and fast and actually had a lot of run outs - about 6 of them because she was so fast - she looked like a border collie. We did fix the problems and she wasn't de-motivated. However, contacts are a BIG problem. Now she thinks target in practice means to stop and stick her landing, but in a trial target means go faster. I'm in for big trouble, I can see it now. And she got "Sheltie Table-itis" which is in her genes and contageous (thanks, Echo). She was barking and screaming at me because she didn't want to go down on the table (and that's her foundation and her table is usually awesome but she didn't want to stop running). We lost at least 5 - 10 seconds. She did a great weave entry and popped the last couple of poles because she was blazing and too excited. She was still 7 seconds under time. She would have had at least 45 seconds on a 67 SCT course if she had been clean. What I learned... My dog is fast. She can run and not be hindered by the wind. My dog's contacts suck. But fast and fun mistakes are good mistakes and I love running her. She did great in jumpers. She didn't Q so we didn't get her AXJ but we ran a pretty course and we faced a really hard weave entry. The slow dogs got it but the fast dogs didn't. Most people NQed because of the weaves.
I came home on Saturday just exhillerated at the fun I had and didn't care that we didn't get one stinking Q all weekend. That's something. I have been thinking about Whisper's contacts. I really think if I stop moving or take her off course for missing contacts will break the drive I've been building. I think after the June shows are over (I've already paid entry fees), I'm going to pull her from standard and spend the time to teach her running contacts. I could teach her a different word but I just think the same issue will crop up, so I'd rather have a proper running contact than worry about her jumping contacts. I can't get her to miss them in practice.
I LOVE AGILITY!
