Miami Trial Videos - Part 2

Even though we didn't have any Q's, I actually liked our runs on the last two days much better than the first two. I think I let myself get frustrated with the courses and with our standard runs in particular and by the third day, I had talked myself into just running and having a good time.

Saturday JWW - I'm actually pretty impressed with how we managed this course. The opening was decent and we were doing pretty good up until I stopped moving and called him off a jump - then I was behind and almost stepped on him. Then he took the (off-course) weaves twice. Didn't see that coming, especially the second time! This was probably the happiest he ran all four days though.

Saturday Standard - Without a startline stay, this opening wasn't very friendly. We had an early refusal, some knocked bars, and then Peyton decided to duck into an off-course tunnel at the very end. He seemed to be running a little (extra) high as he usually doesn't take out bars like that unless I'm in his way.

Sunday Standard - I think this was the only course all weekend that I actually liked on paper. Peyton decided to take a few extra obstacles on the opening, he had his only hop off the table all weekend, and a dropped bar on a turn I didn't cue very well. But other than that it was a fun run and he did handle some tricky parts quite well.

Sunday Open JWW - Our last run of the weekend and I think it showed! This was another tough course and Peyton seemed to have a little case of tunnel vision...he really wasn't paying much attention to me so I just ended up going along with his interpretation of the course. :)

Lessons learned from our Miaimi experience:

1. Stop worrying about where I don't want Peyton to go and instead focus on where I want to go.

2. Call-offs are no fun - Peyton doesn't like them and they make me look ridiculous.

3. There is a "happy" distance where I can effectively handle Peyton in a trial - this is much closer than where I can handle him in practice. He isn't reading my lateral motion from far away - I'm pretty sure this is due to the added stress and distractions in a trial environment. Unless I make my cues more obvious to him, he's going to take whatever is in front of him. Hopefully with more experience, he'll be more comfortable and will be able to focus on me more.

4. Figure out my verbals - In practice, I rarely use a lot of "come here" or "Peyton-Peyton-Peyton" so why do I turn into a screaming maniac at trials? If I'm not screaming, I seem to have the opposite problem - I don't say anything. Need to find a happy medium, I think.

That's our Miami trial recap! We're trialing two days this weekend so look for more videos soon. Hopefully some pictures too!

Miami Trial Videos - Part 1

I'm still trying to get caught up after our Miami trip, but I thought I would share the videos from our first two days. We had a couple of decent jumpers runs and a couple of terrible standard runs. I can't say that Peyton was very comfortable with this venue in general, but I'm pretty sure I made things worse by trying to over-manage his runs which in turn didn't help his stress level. On a good note, I took away a LOT of ideas for how I need to handle him, especially on tricky courses.

Thursday Fast - We only entered the first day of Fast - not my favorite class, but we did manage to Q with a 1st place. Once Peyton got his "must go bark at judge" out of his system, this was a pretty fun run.

Thursday JWW - Peyton wanted the weaves on the opening, then he dropped a bar on the double and then I just stopped handling.

Thursday Standard - I *hated* this course and the opening was terrible for large dogs because when they came out of the chute the dogwalk was right in their face. So what did I do? Stopped and screamed and clapped like an idiot. :) Peyton wasn't impressed - not that I blame him. He didn't seem to be very happy for the rest of the run either. This run was a very good reminder to me that calling Peyton off of obstacles isn't a very good handling choice and doesn't make for a confident spotty dog.

Friday Standard - I did a really bad job of handling this opening which lead to several off-courses. Then we had a really nice running a-frame which was followed by more off-courses. And a few more off-courses at the end. I think we finished with 7 total. On a good note, his table was nice. :)

Friday JWW - A Q and 1st place! Now we only need one more for his Open title. One little refusal, but otherwise this was a fast and fun run.

Day 3 and 4 videos coming soon!

Miami!

We're back! Had a nice time in Miami, but it's good to be home. The trial went okay - not some of our best runs, but it was definitely a good learning experience. We only qualified twice - Novice Fast and Open JWW (our 2nd leg), but we had some moments of brilliance and some um, really non-brilliant moments too. :)

Generally I'm not one to complain, but I wasn't really a fan of the courses this week. I think out of 8, there was only one that I liked. In general, they just didn't seem to have a good flow, and a couple were downright ugly - at least for large, fast dogs. I'm all for challenges, but some of these courses were no fun at all. The trial itself was pretty good - lots of nice people and it ran very smoothly.

As for Miami, I thought it was an okay city - I would probably have a better opinion if it wasn't for the traffic. We drove around downtown and out to the beach on Friday afternoon and it took 3 hours for a trip that should have taken an hour, tops. Our hotel was decent (I was a little worried) although as a little PSA - please, please remember to check the floors when you are traveling with dogs! I always do this first thing, but Peyton still managed to find what I'm pretty sure was a NyQuil LiquiCap on Thursday morning. Thankfully he didn't seem to suffer any ill-effects, but it was not a great way to start off our trip!

Peyton did great with all of the traveling and he was super in the hotel - such a big change from our early hotel stays. It might have helped just a little that his golden friends were staying there too and came over at night to hang out. Peyton has decided that Finn is a pretty cool puppy and they had a great time playing. They were hysterical to watch! Here's a short little clip...

More videos will be up soon!