Today Jonah and I went to DogStar for class and we had a great time. Since I've been feeling a little less confident about our ability to 'get the job done' lately, I walked a pretty conservative handling plan with a bunch of rear crosses. I was pretty sure it would all work, but it certainly didn't push me very hard. As a result, Jonah ran a nice, obedient clear round, but Grace commented that he wasn't very fast. I think part of it was due to my not running as much because of all the rear crosses, and part was that I just didn't 'wind him up' very much at the beginning. Also I was feeling tight and not full speed myself.
The second time through I got him really excited before we ran. He cruised off the start line and through the first few obstacles. I got a front cross in instead of a rear. I layered a jump while he was on the A-frame, and then got in another front cross. Then I pushed for the tire and left him to get in a blind out of a tunnel, but I didn't quite make it in time and had to do a rear on the flat instead. It worked fine even though it wasn't my plan, and we probably shaved at least 5 seconds off the full course time. Fun!
Our last course was short, as we were running out of time, but it included a threadle and a blind cross. Once again I layered a jump with the A-frame and his contacts were great every time. The first time I did the threadle I pushed him too hard to the backside and then didn't open up enough to invite him back over the jump so he ran around it altogether, but the second time I got it done nicely and it flowed quickly and smoothly. I was quite happy with it. There were a bunch of ways to handle the sequence and I would have liked to try it a few more times, but we were out of time.
In general I really love our group class and Jonah's doing great with the other dogs 99% of the time (he had 2 barking incidents today, but generally was super polite), but I sometimes wish we could get a little more time.
The second time through I got him really excited before we ran. He cruised off the start line and through the first few obstacles. I got a front cross in instead of a rear. I layered a jump while he was on the A-frame, and then got in another front cross. Then I pushed for the tire and left him to get in a blind out of a tunnel, but I didn't quite make it in time and had to do a rear on the flat instead. It worked fine even though it wasn't my plan, and we probably shaved at least 5 seconds off the full course time. Fun!
Our last course was short, as we were running out of time, but it included a threadle and a blind cross. Once again I layered a jump with the A-frame and his contacts were great every time. The first time I did the threadle I pushed him too hard to the backside and then didn't open up enough to invite him back over the jump so he ran around it altogether, but the second time I got it done nicely and it flowed quickly and smoothly. I was quite happy with it. There were a bunch of ways to handle the sequence and I would have liked to try it a few more times, but we were out of time.
In general I really love our group class and Jonah's doing great with the other dogs 99% of the time (he had 2 barking incidents today, but generally was super polite), but I sometimes wish we could get a little more time.
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