Well That Was A Wash

Literally.

Holy cow, extreme agility trial XD

It didn't stop raining and lots of dogs and handlers running courses meant the ground was so quickly churned up and muddy and covered in water we were kind of doing aqua agility. The ground was awful, slippery and boggy and we all got covered in mud and water; I nearly lost my shoes and my footing numerous times.

Of course the fact that my dog no longer has a brain meant it was ten times worse.

Charlie's just lost the plot. I don't know what's been going through his head but since we started back training and trialing in January this year he's been _manic_ to the point where he's just not listening or taking any direction from me.

I think he DQ'ed in pretty much every run because he was just mental and not listening. I did manage to slingshot start him in our last two runs which was nice and because he wasn't directly facing any obstacle and was just off to the side it seemed to calm him down- slightly. As calm as Charlie can be before a run anyway.

Our open jumping was the worst run, though. He DQ'ed us just one jump in- saw the tunnel three jumps up and shot off course to try and get to it, and from there it went downhill. It was our last run and the ground was crap; the course had to be redesigned so we could avoid the middle of the ring which was just a muddy bog. To get into the ring we literally had to wade through a creek >.<>

So I've made a decision. No more agility runs- open or novice, I don't care- until I go back and retrain his contacts and he's solid on them. Though considering he seems to still not be mature enough to cope with retaining much training in a trial environment I don't know how effective this plan will be.

But I'm not going to the agility only trial in April anymore and will only stick to games- since we can usually opt out of contacts for those- and excellent and open jumpers until I get him sorted. And if he keeps pulling the crappy stunts he has been lately I'll pull him from all CCCQ trials and just do not for comp with ADAA until he gets some common sense back.

We're still having fun, regardless, but it's annoying me that he's getting away with all of this crazy crap he keeps throwing at me at trials and I can't stop him and fix it, and it's just escalating every single time. He's just full on to the point of uncontrolled mania at trials, manageable at training, so I really do need some way to be able to mesh the two together more- which is why I'm so glad I joined up with ADAA.

Weather permitting, plank work is starting tomorrow.