One last post for today. After our unexpected success with the 15-point bonus line in jumpers on Sunday, I decided to try for the bonus in Chances also. It really was a much simpler challenge, but I underestimated the speed and momentum Belle would have after coming over the straight tunnel alongside the A-frame. I think I could have been a tad quicker in issuing my "come" command. Using "Belle" instead of "come" would probably been a more effective verbal, but I don't know if it would have gotten me the turn I wanted.
I think my major mistake was failing to do a shoulder pull as Belle comes over the jump #4. I am walking backwards, but at such a great distance, I think it was just too subtle a signal. I look forward to warmer weather when I can set this one up in the yard.
The only other thing about this run that I wish I could have changed was to have really reinforced Belle's drive while she was out there running. It was spectacular, and to me it's the kind of drive your dog needs to have in order to go out these extreme distances and perform. It is also something that Belle was not naturally blessed with. She is bright, biddable, fairly confident, and a great companion, but extremely driven she is not. Once we left the ring though, I made an enormous fuss over how well she did.
I'm always happy when I have someone to video my trial runs since I don't have access to formal training anymore. Making mistakes is a part of the learning process; but it's impossible to learn from your mistakes unless you have a good instructor or observer who can tell you what went wrong AND how to put it right.
I try to be my own observer/instructor, and I depend on video to help me out. Sunday's tunneler run was such an unexpected fiasco. Belle has proven herself to be capable of performing some pretty tricky sequences even when I had to take a fairly substantial lead out for one reason or another. I watched the opening of Sunday's tunneler's run several times to find out why it went to badly wrong and what I could have done differently while still taking the long lead out that I wanted. Here's what I discovered:
The lead out probably would have been more likely to have been successful if I had placed Belle closer to the first tunnel. (I purposely left her further back so that she would build up speed before crossing the start line.)
I failed to notice where Belle was looking when I released her--she was looking a me, not at the entrance of the first tunnel.
I ran away from Belle at the start line giving a fairly wide berth to the first two tunnels. This gave Belle really bad information about the path I wanted her to take when released. I should have run closer to the right side of the first two tunnels and crossed Belle's intended path in the gap between the second and third tunnels. This would have given Belle a head's up about where she was supposed to go when released.
When we play snooker, my release word is "come." (I also whisper to her that we're going to play snooker while we're waiting for our turn.) After leading out, I stand with my hands down and in front of my body inviting Belle to come to me. I'm also careful to set her up so that she has a direct line to me. Sometimes there is a red jump along that line; sometimes there isn't. But the idea I've tried to convey to her is that she is to come to me on the straightest line possible, which is what Belle did on this tunnelers run. Even though I did none of these things, running away from her on the path that I took was enough to convince her that snooker was the name of the game. (This I feel is a training issue, but hey, I'm also the trainer.)
In this run, I released her with "okay." "Tunnel" might have been a better choice. But given all the strong body signals I gave Belle and the training we've done for Snooker, I don't think that would have saved the day.
Lastly, from the standpoint of trying to be a good handler/trainer, I could really kick myself that I didn't just go with the flow and direct Belle into the third tunnel instead of running back to the first tunnel and trying to salvage the course. In the split second I had to change my plan, I decided this was Belle's mistake and not mine, so I tried to start over. After watching the tape, I can see that about 10% of the failure in communication was Belle's and a whopping 90% was mine.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not beating myself up over my mistakes. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to analyze what went wrong and how I could have handled it differently. And I look forward to being able to set up sequences where we can work on honing our "extreme" lead out skills.
The first run of the day was jumpers and there was a 15-point bonus line. It looked like it might be doable, so I decided to go for it. I didn't know if Belle could get the turn from 3 to 4, but I felt I would be close enough to possibly salvage the run if she was not sure about what I wanted. Turning back to take the line of jumps heading away from me was made easier by the fact that I wasn't under any bonus line constraints for the turn away. Once Belle was headed away, I knew she'd build up a real head of steam and I was concerned about the possibility of her taking the off-course 14 after 10. If I managed to get her to make the turn to 11 by using "wrap," then the last tricky bit was getting her to turn away from me again and not take the off-course jump (3). It ended up being a beautiful run with a wide turn from 12 to 13 being the only bit that was not perfect.
I apologize for my exuberant display at the end of this run, but it was such a rush to finally reach our goal of a 15-point bonus line Q. And the fact that it was so unexpected to be able to attempt it after not doing any agility for almost a month, made it that much more exciting for me. Thank you, Buster for giving me such a wonderful partner and companion.
Chances also had a 15-point bonus line that I felt we could do. Belle took off like a heat-seeking missile. Unfortunately, her guidance system, i.e., me, was not up to the task.
We ended up going 4 for 6 on Sunday. We failed to Q in tunnelers when Belle mistook by lead out to mean we were playing snooker and made a bee-line for me when I released her.
Wow! What a wonderful weekend we had. Even more so since it comes after a month of inactivity. We traveled to Davenport for the New Years NADAC trial at the Quad Cities Dog Center. It was nice of Ed to come along since I knew it was going to be a long day. The trial started at 10 a.m. and we were back on the road by 7:50 p.m. But what a good time we had. Belle and I went 6 for 6, something we've only done two or three times before, and never running in Elite in every class. David and Dusty cued twice - weavers and jumpers. The weavers Q was for Dusty's Elite Weavers title. Way to go David. It is really impressive the way David and Dusty pulled the two Q's off since Dusty hasn't trained in more than four weeks, and David hasn't run him in more than a month.
Here's the video footage of Belle and me. I was really happy with all our runs. The little red girl ran her heart out. Our jumpers run was a little hinky, but it was late in the day and although it wasn't pretty, it was still a Q.
