Even after leaving home for college, I still manage to go to at least one agility trial in Wichita Falls a year. Except for the long drive, the club here puts on a nice trial. This is my first time in the particular colosseum that the trial is in this weekend and it is very nice. I'm showing this weekend in just JWW and Open FAST with Layla. Our contacts are most definitely a work in progress. It will be awhile before we can enter standard again, but I am fine getting dirt time. Today I really messed Layla up in FAST. The send bonus was tunnel, wrap a jump, and then aframe. I had a really dumb moment and completely walked over the orange tape after Lay wrapped the jump. I was flailing my arms around trying to catch my balance, but it was too late. I'm so glad I don't have a video of that run. Layla had every right to stop and look at me in confusion because I looked pretty ridiculous! We got a Q in JWW, but Layla was definitely not running up to her normal speed. This is the first weekend I am trying her at 24. Layla has beautiful jumping- something I am blessed with because I never taught her how to jump. Clearing 24, even 26, for a girl that measures into 20 is not problem for her, but it does eat up some extra time. I could be wrong- I'll see how she does tomorrow and Sunday.
This is also Jade's first weekend at an agility trial. He was so good today. I am very proud of him. He did not make a peep from his crate and got to meet so many people and other dogs, even other puppies! Having a cute puppy has its advantages and disadvantages. It is so hard to go anywhere without stopping for every person that sees him. Jade is such a love. He has never met a stranger. In fact, he thinks that he is the cutest thing on the face of this earth and that everyone should think the same;). Throughout the day, I tugged with Jade on the dirt, we did some basic obedience commands around lots of distractions, and I ran him through the up-rights on the practice jump. He is such an amazing puppy.
In the few weeks since I have been home, I notice that Layla and Jade are so very different. Layla is an extremely soft dog. She is forgiving, but really too forgiving. She takes the blame for every error on herself. This makes it extremely difficult to keep her up, especially after I have made a mistake that she picks up on. I am trying so hard to keep her from thinking that she has made a mistake, especially at trials. Layla needs to always be right at trials. I finished watching Silvia Trkman's DVD on speed training and I got a lot of helpful hints to pump up Layla. I'm going to give them all a try. Layla is really a very nice dog, but she is definitely a challenge to train. Some of it has been my own error and some of it is due to her personality.
Jade is the complete opposite. Unlike Layla, he does not see repetition demotivating. In fact I have to be the one to call it quits. He could go go go all day long! Jade has not a fearful bone in his body. This morning I caught him mid air as he tried to leap off of the hotel bed to chase Layla down. The silly boy even smacked against the glass window this morning as I was holding the door open for him to go outside. You would think that would startle him, but he had this silly look in his eyes as if he was saying, "Let me try it again! I know I can get the doorway this time!" Lastly, Jade is SOOO FAST!!! It's really difficult for me to play chase games with a pup who is faster than me. I am already teaching him directionals and I plan to also use Cik/Cap. I believe I will be steering from the rear with this boy! He's going to be a blast to run!
If the dogs will every settle down, maybe we can all get a good night's sleep for our morning tomorrow. I am slightly sleep deprived at the moment because I got in at 11:00 pm last night. By the time I got everything and the Goldens in the room it was after midnight. Jade refused to potty (very unusual for him), so this explains why he woke me up at 5:45 this morning!
Jade being cute this morning
My pretty girl
Who's ready for some agility??
My handsome man at his first agility trial
No comments:
Post a Comment