Monday, October 25, 2010

Training Troop Howloween Trial

I had a great weekend at the trial. The girls both tried very hard, and I reached my goals for the weekend. I had fun with the dogs in each run (well, except snooker, but we'll talk about that later), and I didn't get lost!!!

Pixel is still very much a novice dog- I had a few jump commitment problems (which we hadn't had before), and weaves. She could not weave almost at all. She was stuttering through them and didn't have any rhythm at all. It was very strange. She got every entry, but after that no weaves. Interesting, but a pretty easy fix. Bring back the weaves at home. Contacts were also a HUGE problem. I am not very good at teaching running contacts apparently as pretty well she took a flying leap on every contact, there was no head low, running to the end. Sigh. Saturday wasn't bad, she left early but wasn't jumping, Sunday was awful. I have some thinking to do about this. I am not really comfortable asking her to stop in a 2on2off position so am not sure what my options are really. Corgi people- what do you do for contacts?

Pixel did have two really awesome runs. Her jumpers was clean, but overtime. But she ran it so well. We could have shaved off a few seconds had I fronted instead of reared, but I think that her overall speed was down because it was the end of the day. Her steeplechase was clean aswell- but overtime- this was due to having to repeat the poles twice! I am proud of her this weekend, we had some really good stuff, but there is LOTS of work to do! I think a full weekend is too much for her. I may only do two or three things with her a day for a while...

Here is the breakdown for Pixel's weekend.
Saturday
Jumpers 5.51 seconds overtime. Clean
Gamble. lol no. we've been working, and the gamble wasn't overly hard and she still couldn't do it.
STD 1 20 faults weaves
STD 2 weave issues and missed dogwalk
Sunday
Steeplechase 3seconds over.
STD 3 weaves and contacts
STD 4 weaves and dogwalk- amazing flying leap. it was pretty comical. everyone loved it.
Snooker- jump issue- I think she was tired, and couldn't be bothered. lol

Wicca was incredible- all weekend she was listening, and trying really, really hard. It was one of her best weekends ever. And of course I couldn't find my video camera. :(

We had no weave issues at all- she nailed every entry, and didn't pop any poles. We only had two bars- all weekend. Seriously, that is incredible. She Q'd in Jumpers. I almost cried. The course was wonderful, and she worked hard. I didn't get lost, and it was just one of those moments. We work so hard and it really, really is an incredible feeling to see it come together.
Here is a break down of her weekend.
Saturday
Jumpers Q!!!! 5.27 YPS/30.17. 2nd fastest time. The fastest time went to a malinois who ran it ins 30.16 seconds. The next fastest time was 31.20.
Gamble Q! 90pts We got the mini twice, and she had no problem with the gamble. It was a turn over a jump out to a dogwalk, then a turn into a tunnel and an out over a jump.
STD 1 bar 41.39 sct 69
Steeplechase Q 34.08. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! She ran full out like a crazed dog, and still managed to get every contact, weave entry, and jump. Again she had the 2nd fastest time- beat by a Border Collie version of herself (Rondi).
STD 3 lots of faults. :) We were a bit off. I think we even had an off course.
STD 4 Q!!!! awesome run- paying attention, and I knew where i was going. It was quite technical, and there were lots of complaints from people during the walk through. I am proud that we q'd on that course.
Snooker not so awesome. we got tweeted right away when she flicked away and took a wrong jump. naughty corgi. But really, how could I be mad after such awesome runs throughout the weekend?

All in all, a super weekend!

6 comments:

Taryn said...

Wicca is amazingly fast! Her YPS, WOW!

Most of Pixel's errors do sound like Novice mistakes. She's probably just starting to feel that little bit of extra pressure a trial brings.

I definitely do the running contacts for Jimmy. He blew his first dogwalk contact ever on Sunday. Bummer 'cause the rest was good to go. I use hoops consistently in training so he keeps his muscle memory and never has a chance to practice a fly-off in class. Obviously this trial showed some slippage. So far so good on the AFrame and I don't use hoops there.

Wilson, who has way less drive, did running as well. He never once blew his contact anywhere. Such a good boy, but of course he was slower and cautious about making a misktake.

Taryn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jules said...

I am so glad you had such a great weekend with the girls.

We are also working on running contacts so I am no help.

Laura and The Corgi, Toller, & Duck said...

I wasn't successful in teaching my corgi running contacts so I switched to 4 on the floor. Can't say I'm in love with it, and he doesn't exactly like having to stop either in a trial setting, but at least it's better for him than a 2o2o.

Anonymous said...

Why not try the Rachel Sanders method? it works great with my Cardis.

Gay Harley said...

3 different things for the 3 different obstacles. 2o2o on the dogwalk. I don't think it hurts her to stop on the dogwalk and when we tried running it, she would launch.

Running-ish AFrame. We practice on a low, small a-frame. She is drilled to stop on that, but when we are on a full-sized aframe, I do a quick-release. She basically runs right through.

And the teeter is simply a running contact in training and on the field.