I mentioned being a little disappointed by Shasta's errors due to missing obstacles on the finishing stretch to get to the exit/treats. I shouldn't be disappointed, I fully expected it to be part of the process. I think there are two reasons I was.
One, there was small disappointment in the fact that we almost qualified multiple times in excellent but didn't. And it wasn't the course challenges that we missed on. I imagine it's a bit like how it feels to NQ because your dog left the ring. It shouldn't feel different than any other mistake but somehow it seems more avoidable.
The second reason is that I don't feel like there is much I can do about it in training or in handling. I'm sure there are many trainers better than me that think it absolutely can be fixed/avoided through training. But I see it more as gaining the necessary ring experience (fun matches and run-throughs are rare around here). To me, it's frustrating if I can't do much about it in training or handling. Again, it shouldn't be, most of our berners have gone through it and I expected it.
I can do something about how I react to it and train in the show and I am not very happy with myself with that part as I missed a couple of opportunities to help Shasta. The first few times I didn't encourage her back to do all the obstacles which gives her reason to be confused. She probably wonders, is it ok to skip those obstacles or not? Hopefully I can be more consistent in future shows, if it happens more like I expect it to.
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