DTCSP Day 3

Well, we finished our weekend with two more NQ's...at least I can say we were consistent! The Standard course today was definitely do-able, but I was a little bit behind coming out of the tunnel and I think I was trying to get his head, but for some (unknown) reason I was using my outside arm, which he read as a rear cross on the flat. Don't ask me what I was thinking, but this is why I videotape my runs...otherwise I would have no clue what I do wrong! I then pushed him a little too hard after the chute and he missed his weave entry. I decided to keep going, but I think he knew he made a mistake and then pulled out early. Not a big deal. His contacts were good today and even though he came off the dogwalk a bit, I had made a big lateral move to get in a front cross before the a-frame, so I was just happy he decided to stop today.

Our jumpers run was becoming a bit of a mess so I decided to just try and keep moving so Peyton wouldn't get frustrated - we kinda made up our own version of this course. Peyton thought it was a pretty good plan. :)

I'll admit that I'm a little disappointed with our runs this weekend. I think for the most part Peyton did awesome, but I felt like the old saying "great dog; shame about the handler" applied to me. :) Granted, Peyton is not the easiest dog to run, but he does try really hard to go where I tell him to. I just need to keep reminding myself that we're still learning how to run together as a team and it's going to take time. Especially since I've been making some adjustments to my handling approach lately...I need to be a little more...patient.

On a good note, I do think on the whole we handled some really tricky areas pretty well. There were a few courses that seemed pretty choppy and demotivating and we made it through them without a ton of off-courses, so that's a good thing! I am glad that I made a late decision to run in USDAA next weekend and not the AKC trial that I was originally planning. We'll have a few more runs and hopefully a few more opportunities for *handler* reinforcement. Peyton gets cookies after every run no matter what he does, but I want a clean run! I even entered snooker, which I generally detest, but will try very hard to have fun with it. :)