USDAA Wrap Up

OMG, more cat health drama! Marvin’s gooey eye has progressed to a swollen red mess – we’re off the vet tomorrow. He’s just the saddest looking thing at the moment, I really hate to see my cats all fucked up. Dragon is retching, Fizban still doesn’t have his voice back – things certainly went downhill in a hurry around here. Still, at least at the moment everyone is eating well and feeling perky. It was the lethargic not-eating Fizzy that freaked me out the most. We will continue to struggle through, I’m sure there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There will not, however, be any more cute kitten pictures for a while. I have a feeling it’s going to be a while before Marvin doesn’t look like something from a horror movie.

In other news, wrapped up the USDAA trial by noon today, which was nice – and another beautiful day! Still felt like we got plenty of action in, though, once again, team is really not my thing. It was also kind of funny how I just couldn’t deal with the ‘crowds’ at this tiny little trial. I’m still hermiting during my teaching break, not quite ready to face the public yet. My idea of a vacation – staying at home and not seeing anyone for days. It’s lovely. Now if I could just stop having to take my cats to the vet, I could really enjoy it.

Anyway, trial went fairly well. I already knew that Bright and I had work to do, but I think it just highlighted that I can’t be a crappy inconsistent dog trainer, even with Bright. I love how happy she is when she breaks her startlines/contacts/makes up the course – but only bad dog trainers would let her do it some of the time and then correct her for it others. So that is our homework at the moment, making sure I hold her, and myself, to the same criteria that I want to see – every time. Bright’s a big girl now, she can take it. It was actually kind of funny when she popped out of her weaves in relay and I told her lie down and then went back and fixed it, after that her dogwalk contact was solid as all get out. “Oh, now you actually mean it – got it.” Shocking concept.

Meanwhile, Navarre really loves his steeplechase! We ended up winning both rounds, steeplechase courses are made for my big boy. And finals I pushed him a bit more and while still decelerating a bit to help him get into the weaves, I then really pushed past while he was weaving and he held it – such a good boy! He still hasn’t figured out his footwork though, not sure if I need to work on it or it’s something he’ll finally figure out in time. He’s just such a baby still in so many ways. Really happy to see him trying so hard in his weaves, and NAVARRE didn’t pop out when I pushed pass the exit in relay – unlike Bright. He’s still in the ‘good baby dog’ stage, he’s just being so honest and trying so hard. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Round One

Round Two

We did blow our relay run, we had the ‘hard’ side of the course, tricky weavepole entrance and exit and a dogwalk tunnel discrimination. Got all those and I told him to run his dogwalk to the tire straight ahead … and he turns off to another jump instead. Whoops. Ah, team, at least we still qualified – so at least I don’t feel bad, but certainly had he not gone off course on the LAST jump we would have held on to our first place. But that’s the funny part about relay, because while Bright and Dove had been in last place, after relay they ended up qualifying. So go figure. I don’t need a team Q for anything, but it makes it feel more worthwhile.

The jumpers run was fun, with a crazy long last line that really put you behind. Was really happy when Navarre took my verbal turn away cue … and the ran past the last jump again – doh! Bright, naturally, did not have the same issue – though I have to be careful of my ‘go-on’, she really GOES, sent her into outer space.

So after the weekend Bright needs work on making sure she knows what her job is on contacts, startlines and weaves. Especially in competition, while she’s a very good girl, even good dogs need clarity. It’s not nearly as much fun, but I will mark it when things don’t happen as planned. As for Navarre, we need to work go-ons mostly into ‘nothing’, something about last jumps have consistently caused him run around them.