I know it has literally been ages since I have last written! I truly stand in awe of those individuals that have the time and opportunity to update blogs on a daily or even every other day basis!
I feel like summer and just time in general is flying by so fast it is incredible.
I write this on the heels of C Spot Win summer camp and it was a BLAST! A huge success if I do say so myself :-) I would highly reccommend camp to those individuals who want to have a great learning experience in a very laid back FUN environment!
After camp it was immediately off to a USDAA trial in Farmington, Utah hosted by Colleen Hawker and Wasatch agility. Coleen really knows how to put on a trial, very laid back but efficient and the site was once again amazing! Thank you Coleen for continuing to offer these great trials!
I also need to make mention of the fact that the overall attitude of the handlers was fantastic! After all of my ranting and raving about what went on at the 4th of July trial it was really great to see people being so kind to their dogs and one another.
I must also mention that I have had more than a few comments regarding my last post and how helpful it was to be reminded that we are truly in control of our own destiny out on the agility field and that we really need to keep a close eye on what we are training and ultimately expecting of our dogs on course and in training for that matter.
I only showed on Friday and Sat. but my dogs were awesome! Able is narrowing in on that Platinum lifetime achievement award, 5 more jumpers legs to go! Wally and Maze were exceptional and capped off Sat. by each winning their height division in the Grand Prix. SoBe held every start line and stopped and waited for release on all contacts!!!We have not yet tried the weaves in a trial but at camp she was nailing them and staying in almost 100%! I really had a great 2 days of trialing :-) Even better was the fact that my son Nick actually agreed to come with me and we had some really nice mom and son bonding time, it has been a very long time since we have had that opportunity!
Obviously my focus at camp was teaching others but I and the other instructors did take some time after class to work and help each other a bit too :-) During one of these "sessions" I was able to really test Mergers running A-frame, I still had the stride regulator on it, but, I ran full speed cueing Merge up and over and he had to chase me for the toy after completion of the obstacle, he was brilliant! Solid contacts that according to Stephanie, (my other set of eyeballs), he went deeper the faster I ran really proving that he "gets" it!
I will admit that I have given up on the running dog walk with the Merge Man as his stride is just too huge!!! I am really feeling confident with my methodology regarding the running A-frames however.
We are steadily closing the gap on Mergers weave pole channels and he is at approx. 2-3 inch spacing. I did not get to work the weaves as much as I had hoped at camp but back at it tomorrow! I did take the day off today, needed to just let my brain cool a bit :-)
Ann spent a bit of time with me and Merger helping with his jumping, we did determine that he does not have a jumping problem he is still just really unaware of how his extra large body works. It is a great learning experience for me that is for sure! Even though Able is a very big dog he is built very differently than Merger and his physical awareness seemed to be better sooner. She gave me some homework that I will keep you abreast of as we progress.
My contribution was to help Ann with Synners A-frame and her her on track to teach a running A-frame, that was a lot of fun!
Now that camp is done for another year I can get back to a few other things that need my attention, there is always something that is for sure. It was a bit hard to relax today knowing that there are countless "things" that need to be done, oh well it always gets done at some point!
Back to trying to be more timely keeping the blog current!
3 comments:
Ha ha ha - too bad you didn't stick around for the Sunday's first class of the day - Standard.
It became a true training class. I am pretty certain that all of your students and many others used this class purely for training and it was incredible to see how people were so much mre aware of themselves and their dogs .... timely cues, very timely and cheerful praising and even equally timely but not as cheerful "ooops, too bad, you screwed up this time dog".
Just want to say that even though you do an awesome job with your dogs, you have done a mighty fine job of raising a really great young man. Nick is awesome!!
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