Saturday, February 23, 2008

Weekend brags (or lack thereof) Part I

This weekend's runs were both good and bad. JWW was first. I moved Kyra up to the first dog in so I would have time to wind Boo down. He does better if he has time to focus. The JWW course, as seen below, was pretty nice flow. It had some spots that really required some handling, but it flowed really well. The weave entry was fast and straight on.


Kyra stepped up to the line, and actually held her stay, which is hard on her. I threw in a front cross before the weaves, but somehow, it backfired on me! She ended up back where she was before, but she managed to save my butt, and hit the weave entry. The rest was pretty easy. I got my first excellent Q ever! (Too bad it wasn't my dog.)




Boo's turn was next. I had learned my lesson with Kyra (or so I thought). He handled pretty well, except for a couple of mistakes that I made. He hit the weave entry, but popped out. I managed to get him back in, and he was very tentative. When he finished them, I was so proud of him, and I wanted to reward him, and the weaves were pointing right at the exit- so I took the opportunity to reward the weaves. Based on how tentative he was, I felt he was not sure what his job was, and wanted to reward the behavior while I had it.



Next up was Standard. It also flowed well, but had a few spots that required some handling.


Once again I moved Kyra up, but Rusty and Maxwell moved up above us. She was really doing well, hit all the contacts, actually did a fast down on the table, and hit the weaves. I ran ahead of her on the weaves, pulling her through, but wasn't watching where I was going. coming off the weaves, I was in her way, and in front of the tire. So, she went around it, ending our run for a QQ. Rusty and Maxwell Q'd, so I told him that since he took Kyra's spot, tht he owes us a QQ- let's hope that's in the mail!




When it came time for Boo's run, I was feeling pretty confident. Here's the funny part. In our last class, we discussed a front cross at the teeter. We were cautioned against crossing too soon, causing the dog to pop off early, or off the side. Well, I crossed the teeter with Boo too soon, and he popped off the side of the teeter- ending up behind me, which threw my cross off, and so I pushed him out to a wrong jump. Our run was done. But, we kept going- he did the obstacle discrimination extremely well. I was very proud. His serpentine was great. Whean heading to the weaves, he pulled off at the last minute, and made a BIG circle. I stuck him back in the wrong pole, and when I brought him back around and put him back in, he got them all- with much less trepidation than the first time. Since we were at the end, we just finished the last three obstacles, me cheering him all the way.




Now, we'll see if his weaves will hold up tomorrow.

All in all, it was a really good day. Thanks to a wonderful instructor, my handling seems to be improving. One of these days, we'll actually get more than 1 Q at a time!

2 comments:

Theodorable said...

That's what I get for e-mailing you before I check your blog- I miss the fun videos. Great weekend! Congrats on the Excellent Q! Is it my imagination, or is Boo getting faster, especially on the JWW course. How did Sunday go?

Poodlebugs said...

Thanks! I don't know if he's getting faster or not, but I would hope so!