Sunday, May 13, 2012

Weekend Wrap Up- kind of a blur....

I meant to post yesterday, knowing that I'd be too tired and probably forget details etc. But here I am on Sunday night trying to remember what happened yesterday. lol

We did not get our last leg for our CDX. Pixel apparently had super glue on her feet and would not, could not come when she was called. lol. Everything else was passable. Not coming, not so much. It did however give me a chance to double command, and help her out. We'd already failed so why not? The judge didn't say anything, although marked hard for each word of encouragment. lol. I think it was a good thing though- I was able to remind her to come front and praise her for doing so! Her next one was much better. I think it will transfer over to the next time we are in the ring.

Watching the videos she actually looks much better than it felt. lol. She felt really, really laggy on the heel especially the figure eight, but in the video it doesn't look awful. Funny how that seems to go!

I do see that I really need to stop worrying about my dog and look ahead. Looking at my dog makes her lag more. I know that, I preach that. But I can barely see her if I am not looking at her. lol. I guess I just need to trust my training more.

I have decided to enter one day of a summer show. There are two trials and I'll enter both. If she gets it the first time I'll pull and go home. It isn't until July so we've got some time to do some polishing and proofing. ;) (AFTER REGIONALS...)

Here is the video from Friday- this is of our "we passed, barely" round. She is rather adorable, even in her naughtyness. You can see in the video that she wasn't actually naughty- just stressed out. How many stress signs do you count? lol. I won't tell you how many I saw. I thought we had passed this- Reddeer she was very happy and up. I had hoped we'd have that again. Oh well. Lots to work on! I always think of trialing as a test to my training. The training is the best part of the journey!



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Today a friend and I headed to Okotoks to watch some "big kid border collies." I've been to a trial once before, but that was before I had a one so I wasn't really paying attention. ;) It was very impressive. I mean those outruns are gigantic. Crazy. There were some very talented dogs (and handlers), and some wild runs aswell. We stayed for a few hours so got a good sampling of all different types. The people were interesting- none were overly friendly- but I assume like most sports that they don't play well with strangers. ;)  The only friendly guy was kind of a jerk actually. Very much an Alberta Redneck. lol.  I was pretty entranced by the action on the field though so it wasn't a big deal. I want a dog that can do that. lol. 

3 comments:

onecollie said...

her heeling wasn't too bad but we know she is much better! I counted 5 or 6 stress signs, a yawn, a sniff, a look away, sideways ears, & of course the no sit & slow recall, damn ring stress :(

Anonymous said...

Hey maybe you should try not punctuating every post with "lol". Just a thought!

Lani said...

Thanks for posting the video! She is a cute little worker, and you've got a lot of nice things going!

I agree with you regarding training being the fun part. I consider shows to be my benchmark to see if what I'm doing is working. Oh, and it's a test to see if I can control my nerves enough to do well by my dog!