C'mon easy agility! Erm, did I say that out loud?! Excellent may not actually be easier, but at least to get there is quicker than moving up to Masters in AAC. Fewer skills to master as well. No distance skills (Gamblers) or crazy handling (Snooker) needed. Just Standard and Jumpers with Weaves.
Last night at Wet Creek was not so easy agility. I struggled with all sends in Gamblers. Obviously I'm doing something he doesn't understand in a trial. Or maybe he was just hyped and thrown off by the venue. We've also gotten to point where Baxter's 12(ish) obstacles in the opening is going to be really close for qualifying points in masters and I need to work on being able to send to mini's, which he also struggled with. When working on our distance skills I'm also going to work on obstacle value.
On the positive side though, his weaves in gamblers and in relay were good, and quicker! Not quite single striding but not plodding through the poles either. I'll absolutely take that over a Q!
He was doing very nice in Snooker too, until my brain melted and I didn't think on the fly. I didn't try to pull him off a wrong obstacle with motion (ie serp arm) as well as a verbal. He might have pulled off of the wrong tunnel if I had thought to stop forward motion and pull him away from that entrance with a serp. I'll have to try to set that up again out in practice sometime. I find I'm also a little hesitant and look sort of lost in videos, which doesn't help him be confident of what I'm telling him to do.
I also discovered I use Baxter's nick name more than I thought.
I was talking to some people at the trial who were in town from Vancouver. One of them was a younger girl and she introduced her Sheltie, Bonny and then said "And this is Snickers, right?" Close and a cute name, but not quite! The thing is, I seem to be calling Baxter "Snackers" a lot.
In my defense, he came to live with me with that nick name, thanks to the rest my family and his fondness for food. It also starts with a S ... so when I screw up on course and call the wrong dog name Snack and Spence aren't terribly dissimilar, right?!? Maybe they don't notice! (yeah right!)
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| My boys! <3 |
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