We had an...interesting...trial this weekend. Meg was completely off her rocker for her three runs. She jumped a tunnel in her pairs class. My nine-year old dog JUMPED A TUNNEL. I finally got her enough under control for snooker that she pulled off yet another 1st and SuperQ there. I bought the video in hopes that it would let you hear her growling at me (Meg! Growling!), and of course sadly the sound doesn't seem to work. It's still a fun run to watch. She makes me so happy, just by being so happy. I need to keep reminding myself, when I get frustrated with Gusto, that Stressed Meg turned into this. I can work with Stressed Gusto!
Gusto ran his first Grand Prix on Saturday, because it was otherwise a Masters only day, so it was the only class available for him. He was actually better than I expected. He was clean through the first half, then I did a front cross in the wrong spot and through him around a jump the wrong way. We bobbled around for a few seconds and then got back on course for the rest. It was nice that the skills themselves weren't really over his head.
Gamblers was first on Sunday, and I knew immediately the gamble wasn't going to happen. Instead I picked what I really wanted to work on (getting his weaves in the ring, which has been a stress-related issue) and we did a big loop around the outside, including the weaves, and ran out of the ring for cookies. He missed the second jump in standard due to what I think was stress-related scratching on the start line, so we did pretty much the same thing - ran until the weaves, which were SUPER, and then excused ourselves and ran out of the ring. The snooker course was a nightmare - far harder than the masters snooker from that morning! Gusto was great and not stressing and we simply didn't get far enough through the course to get enough points (only 1 dog in all heights did - using my course I gave to her *grumble*). He did Q in jumpers, and finished off that title, so he's now in PIII jumpers - although I won't be entering him in it until we work out this stressing stuff on the start line. I need to be better about taking my time to get him to play on the start line. It helps when I do it, but I worry about getting yelled at for "wasting" time. But this wasted just as much time, and I hate it.
Gusto ran his first Grand Prix on Saturday, because it was otherwise a Masters only day, so it was the only class available for him. He was actually better than I expected. He was clean through the first half, then I did a front cross in the wrong spot and through him around a jump the wrong way. We bobbled around for a few seconds and then got back on course for the rest. It was nice that the skills themselves weren't really over his head.
Gamblers was first on Sunday, and I knew immediately the gamble wasn't going to happen. Instead I picked what I really wanted to work on (getting his weaves in the ring, which has been a stress-related issue) and we did a big loop around the outside, including the weaves, and ran out of the ring for cookies. He missed the second jump in standard due to what I think was stress-related scratching on the start line, so we did pretty much the same thing - ran until the weaves, which were SUPER, and then excused ourselves and ran out of the ring. The snooker course was a nightmare - far harder than the masters snooker from that morning! Gusto was great and not stressing and we simply didn't get far enough through the course to get enough points (only 1 dog in all heights did - using my course I gave to her *grumble*). He did Q in jumpers, and finished off that title, so he's now in PIII jumpers - although I won't be entering him in it until we work out this stressing stuff on the start line. I need to be better about taking my time to get him to play on the start line. It helps when I do it, but I worry about getting yelled at for "wasting" time. But this wasted just as much time, and I hate it.
. Worked some interesting blind cross options and she really liked it and it helped me move downcourse one certain types of sequences. I didn't do blinds right in front of her nor do I want to-- these were slipped in on turns and wraps where I'd usually FX and she doesn't really see the cross except now when she turns back to me I'm already in position instead of midrotation. Doesn't work everywhere but worked well for the situations I had set up that night. Also cleaned up after myself and did some same-side pulls through similar sequences to ensure she knew the difference between cue presentations and wasn't making assumptions -- she handled those well too.
