On Friday Jonah and I went to run-thrus at DogStar. I'd hoped that run-thrus would go like last time: nice and smooth--confidence builders. Well, they didn't. I tried handling some different ways and it rarely seemed to go well.
Here was our first issue:
On Thursday I'd handled this as a serpentine, with Jonah on my right the whole way. At run-thrus I wanted to try it with him on my left. Well, despite deceleration and lateral distance on my part, he jumped 2 really big so he was already pretty much past the weave entry, which made the turn back to the weaves really awkward. He was just so excited (these were actually the first three obstacles of the course) that jumping out of collection was not what he wanted to do. I'd really like to have the skill of handling this on both sides, but it didn't work for us this time.
Once we got started on that course it ran well until I tripped over a cone that was numbering a jump. It was kind of embarrassing, but not a big deal, I suppose.
Our second course started on an only slightly less confused note. I forgot mid cue that I wanted to handle a threadle a different way, so ended up giving Jonah very conflicting directions. Poor guy. He was generous, but I felt really dumb.
The middle of the course ran great, but then I wanted to run the last line (see the drawing from our last post of the weaves to the three jumps) where I'd get a FC in between the last two jumps. Well, I busted my butt to get there in time and then forgot I had to support Jonah taking the correct side of the second jump. Doh. I tried it again and got it, but I'm not sure that line will ever be pretty--it's just difficult!
After running the courses I tried some gamble practice. It was...humbling. First I layered the DW for him to do a jump and a tunnel (1-2):
He missed the jump the first time but got it the second time. I just needed to make sure he had enough gas going into the tunnel, and give the command for the jump early enough.
Next I tried the A-B (tunnel to weaves, with me on the far side of the DW). Well, we never got it. I tried throwing my bait bag out in that direction, but it proved just to be too tough for us right now. He was confused and tried everything he could think of. We'll have to keep working on that one.
Our third gamble was a push out to the teeter, layering a jump. It was about 15 feet, I think. The first time he drove right out to it, put one foot on, and then realized I was far away and came running back to get me. The next time I came right inside the layered jump and he was fine. Third time was the charm, and he took it confidently.
The last gamble of the day looked like this:
At first Jonah turned towards me after 2, but then he was happy to drive out to the weaves. After a couple tries he was happily turning left after two and going to his weaves. This was the same distance as the layering of the DW, but for some reason, even with the RC going away from me, it was easier for him.
Here was our first issue:
Once we got started on that course it ran well until I tripped over a cone that was numbering a jump. It was kind of embarrassing, but not a big deal, I suppose.
Our second course started on an only slightly less confused note. I forgot mid cue that I wanted to handle a threadle a different way, so ended up giving Jonah very conflicting directions. Poor guy. He was generous, but I felt really dumb.
The middle of the course ran great, but then I wanted to run the last line (see the drawing from our last post of the weaves to the three jumps) where I'd get a FC in between the last two jumps. Well, I busted my butt to get there in time and then forgot I had to support Jonah taking the correct side of the second jump. Doh. I tried it again and got it, but I'm not sure that line will ever be pretty--it's just difficult!
After running the courses I tried some gamble practice. It was...humbling. First I layered the DW for him to do a jump and a tunnel (1-2):
He missed the jump the first time but got it the second time. I just needed to make sure he had enough gas going into the tunnel, and give the command for the jump early enough.
Next I tried the A-B (tunnel to weaves, with me on the far side of the DW). Well, we never got it. I tried throwing my bait bag out in that direction, but it proved just to be too tough for us right now. He was confused and tried everything he could think of. We'll have to keep working on that one.
Our third gamble was a push out to the teeter, layering a jump. It was about 15 feet, I think. The first time he drove right out to it, put one foot on, and then realized I was far away and came running back to get me. The next time I came right inside the layered jump and he was fine. Third time was the charm, and he took it confidently.
The last gamble of the day looked like this:
At first Jonah turned towards me after 2, but then he was happy to drive out to the weaves. After a couple tries he was happily turning left after two and going to his weaves. This was the same distance as the layering of the DW, but for some reason, even with the RC going away from me, it was easier for him.
No comments:
Post a Comment