I guess i just forgot to sit down and right this blog. Maybe I was trying to put the runs out of my memory banks or it was just so late getting back. We got stuck in a horrible storm and had to pull off of I-70 for a while and sit and pray and then we also stopped on the east side of KC to look at some sheltie pups for Lori's mom. I would have to say that the day was good and bad, mainly bad. We had stadnard first and a very nice course to run thanks to our judge, Linda Robertson. This was my first time showing under her and i have to say her courses were very challenging but i LOVED them. She is a great judge and very, very encouraging to all the handlers and the ring crew. The course had a very interesting weave entry, from the table to the weaves past an off course tunnel just screaming their name. Shape too much and you risked sending them into the off course tunnel, don't shape enough and you risked not showing them the weave pole entry at all. I really felt like we could handle this challenge as we have practiced this type of entry often. Well, call it fate or whatever but as I was sending him to the weaves and he was making his turn, he slipped on the turf and missed the entry. I think in retropect I was too close to the weaves and worried about the tunnel and didn't give him enough room but I really thought he could have gotten it with the room i gave him. Oh well, another thing to work on at home i guess and maybe I need to buy some stuff for his paws since alot of our trials are on turf now. We then had a long line of panel jump to triple to chute to tunnel. Again a wrong course option of the dog walk being over by the panel jump so you could either leave them in the poles and shift over for a front cross and run the long line with dog on your left or keep dog on your right and rear the chute and possibly have them turn before the tunnel. I felt like the dog walk was too much of a pull and I didn't trust him enough to leave him to get that front cross. Well, I didn't shape the line enough and I put the a-frame into play and he came over the panel, knocked the next jump as i tried to straighten his line, hit the a-frame with a foot probably, ran around the triple thank goodness and got the chute tunnel combo. Once again, my fault, not his, just glad he didn't try and splat the triple. I feel like we are so close yet so far away as a team, once again. I wasn't really that upset with the run other than the fact that he released himself from the a-frame on the O of okay and also on the dog walk but held his teeter. Have never had him release off of the dog walk but the a-frame has happened a few times. In getting him to not creep, to drive to the bottom, i sometimes quick release him and now I am seeing the product of that. Lori and I are pondering going back to a running a-frame now that he is more mature. Hmmmmm......
Jumpers was probably the weirdest run I had that day (easy to say with only two runs a day). It was a three jump curve back to a tunnel. No specific lead out needed, didn't want him to jump extended so barely lead out and slowed down fairly quick to show him the tunnel. What did he do? He turned right (away from where I was pointing) acclerated and took a jump probably 30 feet away all in a blink of an eye. Huh? Why in the heck he did that beats me. I watched the video and once again, I was doing everything right to tell him where to go and somehow he read it completely wrong. Got him back and had a LONG line to the other end of the arena which he accelerated like no other. Had to get him back on a 180 after a long extended line and he got it (YIPEEE). That was actually the spot I was most worried about, not the beginning. Then I think my brain kicked into blown gear again because i had planned a landing side FC and i did a FC in the wrong place and had a huge push back to the next couple of jumps that put him way wide for the weaves. Once again he missed the entry, mainly because he was going 100 mph and someone said he slipped again. Finished the run but I was a little irked, not because of the weaves but because of the beginning. It was a fun fast course that we should have nailed and we flubbed it up for no apparent reason. I watched all my videos over and over and had others watch and no one could figure out why he turned the opposite way. It was like he misread it as a rear cross but if that was the case, my outside arm should have been up indicating a turn on the flat as there were no obstacles within 10 feet of that jump. Sigh. The fun of running baby dogs.
I had lots of complements on how he looked all weekend, on how close were are to getting it, on how mature he looks compared to the spring or winter or yada yada yada. I know we are getting better but sometimes I just want to say a big fat WHY? Why did you do that? Why are you missing this? Are you stressed? You seem to like do this so why are you stressed if that is the case? I really though that camp would replicate what we have in the shows but I really didnt' get that from him at all to be able to work through it. He is a completely different dog in shows than in training. I have heard people say this before and really didn't believe them as miller is the same no matter what but i believe them now! I feel like I am holding up my end of the bargain but he isn't on his end totally. I guess we are going to go back to just concentrarting on specfic parts of the courses rather than the course as a whole and just getting those parts. Believe me, I am not hugely upset, I am just letting it out for my blog and I have ever confidence that we will get out of A and start working on B soon so don't mistake this for anything but me just blowing off some steam.
I do have a fear though and I will say it here. My trainer is moving to KC permanetly and it looks like soon, like in a few months. I feel like she is the only reason I have made it this far and I am really scared that when she is gone, I will really fall apart. I know I will only be 2 hours away and will see her at all the trials, but I really get so much out of our weekly classes. I think I have been taking from her, every week pretty much since she started teaching in manhattan 7 years ago. I have never sat out a session, have taken every single session for those 7 years. I have had one injury that sidelined me for a month and I still came to class and watched. I know we as a small group will still meet and still practice and I know that i can still take seminars and privates from her but I am really nervous and scared. She has done so much for us students and I know at some point the training wheels have to come off but I am still not totally ready. I am excited thought that i do get to teach at the field and continue working with the great students we have built up the past few years. I am super excited to make some extra money to help with my addiction and get more people addicted like me LOL! I have taught I think for the past two years or maybe three for all star so it will be super exciting to take over the agility business in manhattan.
Okay, wasted enough time here at work, need to head home. Puppy seminar in a couple of weeks with tony and stella and then fall show season begins. Three shows a month (heaven help me and credit card don't fail me now):)
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