What a Weekend!

Well, I just finished up with a really fun weekend of trialing at the Colorado Kennel Club 4 day AKC trial in Denver. The courses were fantastic and the trial was probably one of the smoothest run, efficient trials I have ever had the pleasure of attending in Colorado :-)

It was, however, bittersweet... Wally was fantastic and continues to be a complete joy to run, Rumor and I were hoping to get our MACH this weekend and lo and behold the very sweet part was that she did it, TODAY!!

SoBe was entered all 4 days and although the bulk of this entry will be about her and our trial tribulations and moments of brilliance, the weekend ended with Rumors MACH and SoBe being pulled from all of her runs due to a sprained/strained knee!

Ahhh... the joys of dog ownership :-) The good news of course is that what I feared was a career limiting/ending injury appears to be a hopefully minor strain.

Let's talk about the brilliance, I like that topic better. SoBe was so very excited to be at the trial and although she certainly had moments of brilliance, she also showed her age and experience level.

I am happy to report we have definitely got food for Blog with little Miss SoBe. 

Speaking of food for Blog please allow me to digress for a moment to answer a question about the "to do list" I will indeed be giving away the contents of the list as well as sharing all of the things that I am doing to shape little Master Vandal into the consumate agility dog.

I have not forgotten about sharing the progression of Merger, but, he is so busy adding inches to his legs right now that he is taking a bit of time off from agility training while he figures out how to coordinate his brain and his feet :-) He is going to be doing a little herding to keep him sharp and hopefully build a bit of coordination at the same time, so stay tuned.

Anyway, not only will I be bringing up baby online but will be shaping SoBe as well. 

SoBe had no speed issues this weekend, she is as fast as I expected her to be, she thought start lines were semi optional, and, she was complimented numerous times for her beautiful contacts which were quite stunning, running contacts. Oh, did I mention she has a running A-frame and a 2on/2off dog walk and teeter?

I mentioned she was very fast, right? That may be why collecting to get into the poles was such a challenge!

As soon as I figure out how to download my Flip! videos to this blog I will share one of her lovely runs with you.

The good news is that none of these minor issues are a big deal, they were excellent training tips! 

All of SoBe's issues were a direct result of adrenaline and environment so with time, experience and proper reactions to her mistakes we will have the same super performance in the ring that we have in training.

How does one go about filling these holes? 

First, I have to up the ante in training, more proofing is the biggest item on the agenda. I am a believer in training to 200% to insure the best possible outcome in competition, it is virtually impossible to create ring nerves in a training situation so you must instead train your dog better!

SoBe gives every indication in training that she is ready to trial, so we did, I still believe she is ready we just have to work out who decides what what is acceptable behavior in the ring and I believe this has to be worked out "in the ring".

Trust me there is still a lot of work to be done from a training standpoint, such as, weave entries at even more angles, with even more speed into them. Weave poles going into fences, walls, etc... you name it we will continue to proof it!

I see a lot of racing past contacts, toys being thrown, etc... to really be sure the understanding of that 2on/2off behavior is rock solid. Then there are those pesky start lines :-) You get the picture.

So, what is the appropriate response to lack of criteria maintainance in the ring? I am not a big believer in leaving the ring unless I have a dog that truly believes they were born for agility, don't get me wrong I think SoBe fits that bill but she needs the ring experience more than she needs to be removed from the course when there is good training to be had.

This weekend for instance, if SoBe did not maintain her 2on/2off criteria on the dog walk I verbally marked it and asked her to heel before we moved on to the next obstacle. The most important part was to not allow SoBe to be immediately rewarded for ignoring her job. 

I am hoping that every obstacle is a reward for the previous obstacle, with this in mind I am going to withhold the reinforcement of immediately moving on by requiring her to stop and gather herself first, both physically and mentally.

SoBe had a lot to say about this philosophy and was happy to verbally berate me on every occasion around the course!

However, now that we have lived through our first full weekend of trialing I can say that I had a blast and I am as excited as ever to play with my girl SoBe, now we just have to get her back on 4 legs!

Rumor celebrated her MACH with 2 mini cheeseburgers from Burger King and she is ever so happy to be daddys girl once again as he will take over all future handling of princess Rumor from now on.