Ughhh this weekend was so frustrating for my poor little spaz dog. We were trialing at an outdoor venue that happened to have SHEEP 100 yards away from the ring. (On the other side of the barn out of sight, but their smell and their "baaaa!" was quite evident)
My dog could. not. focus.
We've had a really high q rate recently (for us, at least). Yesterday we looked like we had regressed a year. Leash off, BOLT for the fence, WHEREARETHESHEEPOMGIWANTTHEM. Sucked. By the end of the day we managed to string together half courses, but we were eliminated from all 6 runs.
This morning, we started off better (sheep weren't out yet). A little unfocused, but just things like missing a weave entry or me sending her too wide for a jump. I'm okay with those issues--I can work through that. In the afternoon the sheep were out, but I moved the car as far away as I could and she was doing okay. We were steadily getting better all day (Q'd/1st place out of all novice dogs of any height in Jumpers!), and then the last run of the day...it was tunnelers, which I love. She's so speedy, the tunnels contain her, we generally do really well. Unfortunately, people were packing up their things, and someone's EZ-UP blew over when we were on the start line. My dog was GONE. I told her to go, and she bolted and it took me and the judge 3 minutes to collect her. Mortifying.
We had come so so so so far in our focus work. She upstresses so badly (bolting at a billion gazillion miles an hour instead of shutting down like most dogs do), but we were doing really well with it thanks to hours upon hours of toting equipment to backyards and parks and renting facilities for practice and going to every run-through/fun run within a 90 minute radius.
Now I just feel like it's hopeless to keep doing outdoor trials. I can't proof sheep and flying EZ Ups. I know tomorrow I'll have a better outlook on it, but today I am really down