Grace Jumpers June 17th
Grace Jumpers June 18thGrace Jumpers June 19th
Grace Standard June 17th
Grace Standard June 19th - Do you really want to watch that one?
The 3 jumpers runs are Grace's NJP title. And the standard runs are NQs. The standard run from the 19th is the horrid "lets herd Mom through the entire run" run. Hence my wish to looking into the Control Unleashed and Crate Games DVDs. I'm trying to learn from all our runs... sometimes the lessons are not obvious.
So onto the current weekend - Jackson, MS obedience. Bern NQ'd Open both days. Saturday he was not himself. Once he NQ'd the first exercise he was worried and then NQ'd the next 3 exercises. On Sunday he only missed his Drop on Recall. Tracey claims I gave a whimpey command so I'll take the blame.
Grace was entered in Wild Card Novice (Saturday) and Wild Card Open (Sunday).
- On Saturday we opted to not have Grace's Stand for Exam judged (our wild card). Grace stood and the judge walked around her. I was pleased because Grace did stay standing during 2/3 of the arc the judge made behind her. Grace then sat down to feel more secure. Next Grace herded my through the off lead healing pattern (maybe I wasn't walking fast enough?) and did a very speedy recall. Grace made it through 45 seconds of the 1 minute sit - progress on this exercise. Grace is struggling to get the fact that "sit" and "down" are two different requirements in obedience. We are working on this when we play with the hose watering the veggies. I really need to buckle down and straighten this out with her.
- On Sunday we opted to not have Grace's Out of Sight Long Sit judged (our wild card). Grace did the other exercises well. She still struggles with her outside loop of the off lead Figure 8. Her broad jump was an NQ since she took off very early and landed squarely on the last board. I will figure out a pace off for her and we will try to stick with a constant start distance during obedience trials but I would think the agility dog should be able to judge her own takeoff point. She performed the Long Sit and Long Downs as two separate downs and did well on these. I think she looked better in Shreveport but she was certainly feeling very comfortable in the ring in Jackson and talked to me through the heeling exercise and Figure 8.
Take aways from this weekend:
- I need to be very firm with my commands in the ring for both dogs.
- Both dogs need practice briskly starting to heel. I left them both at the start line during their off lead Figure 8s.
- For Open, Grace needs a consistent start point for the broad jump.
- For Novice, Grace must learn to perform the 1 minute sit. I think if we can conquer this we might actually be able to transfer the knowledge to the 3 minute out of sight sit relatively quickly.
- Bern will need lots of practice between now and the Labor Day weekend trial in Folsom so we can finish him up in Open at the next trial.
Independence Day was designated as wash the dogs day. Each dog was brushed and then washed. I washed and Mike dried. Bern had to get brushed a second time after the bath to remove yet more loose undercoat. Everybody feels and smells good.
