Wrap Up - 11/26 Linda Lesson & 11/28-29 YABTC trial

11/26 Linda Lesson - Good lesson, I am very happy with it and what we learned. Key items to work on:
1 - Work on Panic's motivation (didn't think I'd ever say that!). Jazz her up a lot before runs. Teach her to drive around turns (not just turn tight, but turn and DIG) and then catch up to me! Related - ensure contacts are solid when hyped up!
2 - Run faster/keep motion forward. Think about when I want Panic to turn tightly vs me driving into pocket further to keep her speed up longer, resulting possibly in wider turn. She adds strides as soon as I begin decelerating. Panic modulates her speed based on mine, so I need to keep moving fast.
3 - Work on helping her to feel comfortable and confident in leaving out the extra stride she often leaves in before a jump. Use ground bar if necessary.
4 - Make sure to give NTO commands as early as she can see the obstacle, so she will know a) extend and head towards it, and b) when I do not give NTO commands when the obstacle is ahead of her, she will know not to take it since I didn't give the command (consistency is key)

I think that's mostly it, good lesson!

Dexter YABTC 11/28-29, Washingtonville
So, so, so, so happy with this trial! After the fiasco in Dexter MI a few weekends ago, I kept trying to convince myself that my dog wasn't a total freak, that it was a fluke, giving all these reasons it happened etc... but I wasn't convinced. It was very tough to have confidence going into this weekend. I ran him in JWW only, and it was AWESOME! Kept him crated in the car because crating was limited and figured away from the cacaphony of the indoor area would be better. Well, Saturday at one point I took him out to potty and BANG gunshot!! Oh no. Dex was terrified :( Freaking out, pulling on leash trying to get AWAY. I brough him inside and crated him there, in case the gunshots continued. I didn't want him to be stressed in the car the whole day. He did calm down, and was fine in the building after a bit. Whew. Happily walking around, even being a jerk to other small dogs (not acceptable, but does mean he feels comfortable). Okay, I can breath again.

So, we run Open JWW. Not a Q, but I was thrilled!! He ran fast, happy, and confident. Problem areas were: Weave Poles - twice he weaved 6 and then popped. Oops. Also went wide and around me/got distracted on 2 FCs. Oh and also before the WPs he visited ring crew - something he's never done before! I honestly think that, and the FC issues were because he is feeling more comfortable and able to look around and see what's going on now. watching the video, on the 2nd FC problem, he looks at me as I cross and then says "eh, I think I want to go over here". Not sure it was my handling causing the problem.

Sunday - crated him indoors again, worked out great. AWESOME run!! No Q again but that's ok - he stayed with me and focused almost the whole time. Again WP problems (worse than Sun, and he was definitely looking for things to be distracted by here). After WPs he looks around and says... "Hey!! That's my daddy filming me inside the ring!" and went to say Hi to Andy. I honestly couldn't believe I was able to get him back, but he came back and focused on me and finished the course with a bang! Very fast, was able to do a nice RC on the flat which he handled beautifully, and overall very nice run :)

I think his runs this weekend showed a HUGE amount of potential, and we just had baby dog mistakes. Hopefully my freaky little dude is not going to make a return visit :) We are definitely staying AWAY from Dexter MI for a few years with him. No reason to stress him or ME out that much. If I could read his little doggie brain maybe we'd be able to work through it, but I really don't want him associating that level of stress with agility, even if he's only there to hang out.

Will post vids later, as well as some nice Panic pic that Andy got.