Yep, I compare with P too. It is really really frustrating that he's still in Open and here is Georgie in Excellent Jumpers. Payton started first. Payton got his NAJ first (and super fast - maybe too fast.) And here she is with her title and nearly got two AXJ legs this past weekend and meanwhile Payton just has the one leg for his OAJ. Yep... and of course it's even more frustrating because MY MOM trained Georgie, she doesn't even really know what she's doing. I think that's actually part of it. She just follows directions very explicitly and never does too much or anything extra. And I'm more likely to push Payton. Sigh.
Georgie had a great trial although her weave poles still need some work. I bought more steak to do some Steak n Weaves with Georgie and see if I can't get that cleaned up. She needs better contacts too and I think I'll have to take over that too, to make sure timing is correct and that she's consistently rewarded for the correct criteria. My mom just doesn't really do a lot of contact work with her (not too hard to understand since the contacts are all over at my house and she's unlikely to pack Georgie up to take her over there, and it's an ordeal just for ME to pack Georgie up and take her over there because she bark-screams the entire time I'm working with Payton. Oh the neighbours are just gonna LOVE you, Georg.)
Auggie also had a great weekend, no Qs but he was fast (for Auggie.) Like he would have gotten 15 PACH points if he'd Q'd. It's a lot of my fault for not really practicing with him - I mean, he's supposed to be retired, so we don't really do jumpwork or anything anymore. If I DID we might have a different dog. He happily tugged and played with me before his runs so I think that's going a long way toward a happy dog and happy runs. They had little brag boards for people to write on... there's one for Auggie here...
Payton, well. No weaves all weekend long, we got REALLY close one day. He got most of his contacts, in one run he got ALL of them. Some times I actually remembered my rules. He blew an a-frame and I just stopped and waited for him and he backed his butt on it. The dog walk was the second to last obstacle and he stuck that one and I held him on it a LONG time telling him "Good, good boy, good boy!" Our Sunday JWW course ended with a nice long wrap where the judge pretty much just said "run as fast as you can." I had planned to really run, especially if Payton wasn't Qing to that point. Well, he didn't get his weave poles, so I told him "oh you're in big trouble now" and we got to that part of the course and I just started sprinting. He came with me and it was beautiful. I really love when I get to just run full out with him. Everybody outside the ring was like "oh, haha, you REALLY ran fast." Yes, yes I did. and it was fun. It was a nice way to end the trial, really.
We had a hard day on Saturday morning and I took Auggie outside to cry about it. Saturday afternoon was much better (that was the round he got all three of his contacts.) After this weekend I actually feel like we might be working toward something rather than just getting in the ring and hopelessly flailing around together. So... not there yet. But approaching it, I think? I hope.