Not much to update with training. Long hours of work and consistent rain and drizzle makes for little training. I did get a few sessions in this week and I focused on rear crosses as Shasta missed the rear cue a couple of times this past weekend.
As for last weekend, as the title of this post suggests, lots of things to be happy about but I was a little frustrated, especially with the last run.
The encouraging things include her working with better speed than she had in the past at On The Run. She did still struggle with the exit corner. She went 2 for 6 and I think all four mistakes happened in the exit corner. That said, the drive to the exit was not extreme on any course, which she had been a couple of times in the past. Also encouraging was that the aframe went very well all weekend, no stress and not any big pause at the top of it. So all-in-all, a little faster, a little less distracted at this venue, no residual aframe issue and no new issues.
Still, frustrated for much the same reasons. No issues yet we went 2 for 6. More importantly, I continue to pass on courses with tight measurements, flunk on courses with more points available. I'm already letting it get in my head. It was at it's extreme on Sunday. First was jumpers and after jump two we had another hoarking episode, our first since we started using lunch meat for her pre-run treats. It cost us 6-7 seconds while she ate her treat again (it never hit the floor) and we still Qd for two points. Then, in standard, there were lots of points available. She ran nice, made it through it all and... missed the last jump. I was gassed (having run Sonic 10 dogs earlier didn't help) and I couldn't keep up at the end to insure she didn't miss the jump. Looks like it would have been 16-17 points on that run alone. Ugh.
I know, she is really, really young and early in her career, I shouldn't be worrying at all about her points yet. Yep, that's perfectly logical and correct. But not how my emotions really were. I was really bummed when she missed that jump.
Now it's on to two weekends of outdoor agility. I hate outdoor agility. If hot and/or sunny, I just don't concentrate well. I also don't think Shasta will do well in the rain if it happens to, she is quite a princess about being in the rain at home. It will also be interesting to see if I can keep Shasta off of any dandelions that happen to be in the ring. So, my expectations aren't very high but it's agility, so one never knows.
