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Believe it or not my life is not all about dogs. I spare the whiny details of my teenage existence for the sake of whoever reads this. But I still feel like whining, so I'll do that here: http://cycle-of-menace.livejournal.com/
Jun. 18th, 2009
It's storming hard and I'm bored, so I'll take this opportunity to brag about how great Panic was at class Monday (I've moved to the Monday night "Advanced Handling" class). The week before, as I mentioned, his contacts had gone to crap. Well now I'm happy to say they're back! He did great! It had rained that day, so only four people showed up for class and we got a ton of stuff done. I never really consider Panic to be an extremely fast dog, but in the middle of a sequence at class I was had an epiphany, like "Whoa, Panic is...fast!" Not only is he really moving, so am I! I'm so glad I've been getting into good shape, because my goal handling-wise with him is to really run full tilt and tell him where to go ahead of time.
I think the one major issue we have is me waiting on him. He often bypasses jumps and I think this is the reason why. Re-watching some videos I notice me slowing down or stopping to wait for him, and him doing the same, watching me, and going wide around jumps. He tends to get herdy-circly if I slow down. I even know when I'm doing it, standing there like an idiot..."Oh...there he goes around that jump...I'll just stand here and watch." *facepalm* Everyone always says keep your eye on your dog, but I think I do this a little too much. He's still a baby but I need to learn to trust him more. I know the areas that we have trouble with, mainly the third jump in a pinwheel, so I worry about them and thus actually cause the problem! At least I know what I'm doing so I can try to improve!
I think the one major issue we have is me waiting on him. He often bypasses jumps and I think this is the reason why. Re-watching some videos I notice me slowing down or stopping to wait for him, and him doing the same, watching me, and going wide around jumps. He tends to get herdy-circly if I slow down. I even know when I'm doing it, standing there like an idiot..."Oh...there he goes around that jump...I'll just stand here and watch." *facepalm* Everyone always says keep your eye on your dog, but I think I do this a little too much. He's still a baby but I need to learn to trust him more. I know the areas that we have trouble with, mainly the third jump in a pinwheel, so I worry about them and thus actually cause the problem! At least I know what I'm doing so I can try to improve!