The Trial that Didn’t Happen

And we’re back! So nice to get back into everything again. Bryn has been doing fantastic and has had no issues working back up to hiking, herding and full height agility. We have yet to go back to free running on the property though, as that was what might have caused the initial injury (though I really have no idea). I’ll admit I kept assuming she’d come back up lame, even just a little bit, but haven’t seen anything at all. So that’s a huge relief and we’re all so happy to be back together doing all the things again. We are all very happy to be back hiking every week. It was fun to do obedience with Asher last year, but we really have missed our regular hiking. Which means we are also back practicing at Maddy’s every week too. It’s not as much practice on sheep as I’m sure they need, but having it ‘scheduled’ really helps.

Also been enjoying running my dogs in my classes, despite not doing super well getting through things. Well, at least with Bryn – OMG, that girl is WILD now that she’s back. She’s making up for lost time and is just full speed ahead. This does not make her easier to run. Still, it’s amazing what a little practice can do, I’m feeling optimistic about our future in agility. Well, assuming they are flowing courses that don’t make her actually have to come in when she’s flanking at 100 miles an hour. We are working on commitment, as that’s what makes her hard to run – she wants to both go fast and take whatever, and not commit so I can’t get to where I need to be. We are auditing a Justine class, where, once again, we are doing a shit job of keeping up with the homework. But no one can say we didn’t at least have PLANS to try to proof some behaviors.

We spent our training time retraining her weaves this week, where last week on her soft sided entries she kept wrapping the first pole instead. I figured she would remember, but no, we had to go all the way back to 2x2s. I even tried weavepole guides I had got for the training barn (which are total shit, they broke immediately just trying to put them on), but even with the guide, she was determined to go to the wrong side. She is back to being a good weaver – but it should come as a surprise to no one that her commitment with opposite motion is really poor.

Asher has been the main focus, puzzling through his backside jumping block – and we’ve made progress with one jump work. Trying different things and helping him see he CAN make appropriate jumping decisions … but he still sometimes just doesn’t. He was TERRIBLE in class, both front AND backsides – crashed the double, stuttering, throwing his body around, not confident at all. It’s a puzzle, as sometimes he can just look SO BAD, but sometimes he just looks … normally bad. Sigh. This week I felt like I needed to start accepting the fact that he’s probably not going to get better and that agility is just not for him. He tries so hard, but he clearly can’t jump. Breaks my heart, but when he has a bad day … it just doesn’t seem fair to ask him to do it, no matter how much he loves it. And I get so upset when he clobbers a jump, and then he gets upset, and it’s not a good cycle. We are still trying, but my confidence is low this week. He can do other things, he doesn’t have to do agility. I’ve done it before, but it makes me sad. I love agility, much more than other things. Good thing he loves EVERYTHING. Maybe next week will be better …

We are also doing the AKC international league, the courses have been fun. I got cocky for the second course and tried to run it clean last week, and Asher’s brain exploded when I fixed too many things. Then he was doing weird things like only taking the tire backwards, so we had to stop. Also ran Bryn, which could have been worse, she did better with the weaves than a certain orange dog I could mention – but then she got SUPER flanky, which made it all ridiculous. Happy though, no issues working in Silverton now, it’s been a great opportunity for all of us.

Not much on the horizon agility-wise, which is fine, we need to train. But any trials coming up are either judges that I don’t like or I have other things planned. I may do some USDAA, with all their rule changes I could enter all the dogs in Masters – or whatever is first thing of the day. One ring USDAA trials with 8000 classes go FOREVER. I don’t have that kind of stamina. Poor USDAA, it’s definitely on its last legs – this may be the only local trial left, though I assume CAT is still going to do at least one, though there is nothing on their calendar. There is a UKI trial at my arena in April that I’m looking forward to, though I don’t anticipate much success. Oh, and we have a jumping seminar for Asher next weekend – but I’ll admit I don’t expect much from that.

I actually took a day off to go up to Fidos to work with Ron on the trial field, and that was really helpful. If only to show that, yes, Asher is such a dork until he settles down. When he DOES settle down he listens really well, slows down, has lovely outruns, nice pace, lies down the FIRST time – but only like the fourth or fifth time you do it. Which is not helpful. So, yeah, too tight, too fast, panicking on his outruns, overflanking, completely unresponsive at a distance … all the normal stuff. And ending with doing a lot of great stuff with lovely pace and distance. But, yeah, definitely not at first.

And then Brynniwyn had never been to the Fido’s trial field before, so happy with her outruns! That girl comes in so soft and thoughtful and very much in control (unlike a red head I could mention). But we started with some VERY heavy sheep … who did not believe Bryn was a dog. And we ended up encouraging her to be ‘naughty’ because the sheep were just NOT MOVING. Bryn was more than happy to razz them when encouraged, but that’s not really what I want to practice. With lighter sheep she was much happier, but she was jumpy and she did not want to let the sheep flow on the drives, too worried about losing them in this new location with a draw. So I argued with her more than I normally do, about lying down, steadying up, taking flanks even with the draw (she was TERRIBLE with this). She’s a baby, so expectations are low – I love that she doesn’t make messes … unless we ask her to. So, yeah, as usual I didn’t feel either dog was remotely ready to trial. But I’ve never NOT felt that way, so hey. No one can say we didn’t try to get them ready though. Herding is nothing if not a whole lot of work for very little payoff in my mind.

And in the end we didn’t go to the herding trial anyway! Freak snowstorm closed down Portland and it’s still not over yet. It’s not bad in our area, though we got some decorative snow. But I wasn’t comfortable driving up there with roads being like they have been up there – and with more snow forecasted. I’ll admit I wasn’t devastated, as it’s WORK for me to go to a herding trial, not fun like going to an agility trial. It was similar with obedience, part of the challenge of the sport was actually doing the things in a real life situation – so I want to test our skills in those real life situations. I just never found it FUN to do so, at least, not in the agility sense. It was a piece of the activity I found necessary to enjoy the training, but not enjoyable like the training.

Doesn’t help that I have never, ever thought my dogs were actually ready to trial in herding. It was always a feeling of having no control and no idea what they’d do. But I think that’s part of herding, you can’t control the sheep, you really DON’T know what is going to happen – there is a completely chaotic element of the sheep that makes it impossible to really predict what will happen. I’m not really a fan of that. So I never feel prepared for trialing in herding, and probably never will. I do know, waiting to trial can only help improve our chances. We are highly unlikely to get WORSE, so, hey.

I don’t know when I’ll attempt to enter a trial again, it’s expensive and stressful and I hate traveling and being at things all day and then I know I’m not going to be happy with our runs. Because it’s herding. So maybe something at Ian’s, that at least I can just go home afterwards feeling frustrated and exhausted instead of a hotel. I would like Bryn to be driving better. And Asher … well, yeah, I’d like to feel more confident he’ll actually do the things I know he can do. He is growing up, I know he’ll get there!