Must Run Faster

I've deciding that my newest goal for team Peyton is to really start pushing for speed when we practice. While I try to never *discourage* speed, I've really not asked for too much up to this point. I realized after our last trial that I really need to work on handling Peyton with more speed or I'm never going to be comfortable running him at a trial environment when he's extra amped and when we're faced with novice courses with lots of long lines. :)

I always joke with my classes that they need to spend less time admiring their dogs on course and just *run*...I have to admit though, I'm guilty of the same. Because I tend to be very analytical, somewhat of a perfectionist, and spend way too much time obsessing over the little details (surprised?), I sometimes forget to just let go of it all and just run! So, long story short - I'm going to work on this and hopefully it will help me to be a little more prepared and confident when we trial. Not that Peyton doesn't have nice speed as it is, but I have to say when he's really *moving* I often find myself a little dizzy and totally incompetent when it comes to handling! :)

This week wasn't the best week to work on speed as we had several short, tight sequences in class, but Peyton did handle them pretty well. I do love how well he responds to me being ahead - he really does seem to find another gear! The only exercise we really struggled with was the last one I have included in our video of the week - it was just yucky (sorry Lisa!) and featured a couple of challenging 270's which I think would have been best handled with rear crosses, but we just couldn't quite work them out. On one attempt I did manage to get in a front cross, and it wasn't very pretty - but look at Peyton *move*!


On a somewhat related note, hopefully those of you who signed up for Susan Garrett's newsletter received her first podcast today. And if you're not signed up yet, you can still do so at www.clickerdogs.com/. Although I think I qualify for what she considers the 2 in 30 *most* of the time, her podcast was a great reminder of the power of reinforcement. I also really enjoyed her recent post on gratitude which you can read at www.susangarrett.wordpress.com/.

Today I am thankful for those wonderful instructors, both local and international, who take the time to share their experience and insight with others. :)