Holy Crap

And that's a very, very, very good "holy crap".

Finally back at training again last night- a Monday night with no rain, I thought I was going crazy- and we did some little courses with contact equipment in and my word, I have an awesome dog.

I went back to verbally cueing his touch and he does know it, haha. He just obviously forgets himself sometimes.

But not tonight. The special moose dog absolutely rocked.

He had beautiful 2o2o on the dog walk and seesaw and nailed it on the a frame as well which has never happened before :D A couple of times he overshot it ever so slightly, but without me even having to say anything he backed his tootsies right where they needed to be and stuck it. It was less of him not responding and more of him still working out speed regulation since he rarely sees full sized equipment and goes twice as fast at training than he does at home.

Bye, running. 2o2o all the way from now on, on everything. I just need to work out how to transition how he works at training into how he works at trials.

Because the latter is never pretty and far to on the side of chaos for my liking.

I'm sure it's all down to me, and I'm kind of keeping my fingers crossed that's it. I'm a lot easier to fix than trying to get inside Charlie's head and work out a way to get him running with the same success at a trial that he does at training.

I just need to get off my arse and enter some ADAA stuff. I was aiming for the end of the year, but I know he's past needing to be fully retrained and I don't think there's any point in waiting any longer. That's not our issue. It's never really been our issue. It's just making what works in training work in trialling. That's always what gets us. We've got the speed, we've got the training, we've got the enthusiasm. We just aren't quite as in sync when we're in a ring competing.

I've got plenty of just jumpers trials with CCCQ coming up over the next couple of months with nothing contact obstacle related in sight, so at least I won't be making more mess to try and clean up with that.

After I've sorted out how to get lovely contacts at a trial I'll need to be turning my attention to how to get lovely start line stays at a trial- until then, we'll just fumble along and hope for twisty starts. I've been given numerous suggestions by numerous different people, and all come back on just quitting the run as soon as he breaks at the start line. I want that as a last resort, though- yeah, I'm fussy- and definitely want to try a couple of other ideas first off.

Hmm… Yeah. We need to enter lots of ADAA stuff. ADAA titles and qualifications confuse the crap out of me, so I don't think I'd ever really compete seriously with them- but I can utilise the NFC runs. Muhahaha. I wish that CCCQ offered something like that- some sort of training run at trials- but considering how long trials go for currently, even with just the four basic classes, that'd be a bit of an exercise I'm sure. And they're the ANKC, so it's all very official and proper and geared at serious competing so I doubt it'll be happening anytime soon.

Still. Girl can dream.

We've got just under five weeks until triple jumpers, and since it's- as the name suggests- just jumpers, I can shift focus from contacts for the time being onto sorting out the start line. I need a back up plan, though, which is going to involve slingshotting and setting him up in weird positions to try and curb the "aaaaaaaah can't hold it in gotta ruuuuuuun" that Charlie's so fond of as well as give me a chance to try and flick him out and make up ground before he DQs us for off course yet again.

Tomorrow I'm going to be trying to make sense of the ADAA events schedule and keep my fingers crossed for a trial in between now and the ninth of July. There's apparently one next Monday, on the public holiday, but it's my youngest brother's birthday and since I can't drive myself I'd need a lift and my parents would kill me for even suggesting it on that particular day. But I shall have a look and see what I can find for the remainder of this month.

So much cash for so many entry fees. Eek. Good thing I have a job and no other hobbies.

It's just all so exciting!!!! :D :D :D Hehe.