Sunday Night Practice

Kim Lindquist of Contented Canines (Moline, IL) rented the QCDC this afternoon and set up three different courses for us to work.  I concentrated on running as fast as I could, and I think I did a pretty good job.  There was room for improvement in these areas:

1. Timing.  But for a change I was too early as opposed to too late especially when the further end of the curved tunnel was the correct entrance.
2. Using a directional without an obstacle name or instead of an obstacle name.
3. Failure to keep an indirect eye on Belle as I'm sprinting ahead of her.

On the first exercise I had a devil of a time trying to handle the closing.  I wanted to do a blind or front cross in the worst way.  However, the reality of the situation was there was no way I could get there.  Besides a push worked just fine.

On the third exercise, I chose to try the opening two different ways.  The first time, I lead out and indicated we were going to the tunnel a la Mecklenburg.  The second time, I started with Belle.  When I did the lead out, I felt like an eternity passed before I was free to move again, and  I thought for sure that running with Belle from the start line was probably the better way to handle this opening.  I was somewhat surprised when I did the slow-motion comparison for the video.