Today MeiLi was a bit unfocused at class. She did do an amazing job on her wraps from the Aframe to the tunnel on both runs that we did that course. Her start line and focus on the start of the runs continues to be an issue. Perhaps part of the issue is on my part of not giving every command needed and assuming she is going to do what I expect. we will need to do a lot more training on the start line itself before it will be successful under stress, of a trial. I am very pleased with her overall speed and was really pushing the distance handling on some of this today. I was not at all disappointed with her lack of layering the dog walk to the last jump as that is way above our current skill set. Even with her popping out of the end of the weaves I was pleased with her entry and for letting me rear cross the entry. Here is the first run today. While it felt like a hot mess there were some very nice parts.
Both runs on this course she struggled with the teeter and the dogwalk. I am thinking it was just a weird day. The teeter was perhaps the location being close to the front of the ring where everyone hangs out with their dogs. We will see if it continues. Our weakest skill continued to be the start of the course. I think this is one of the only times she has knocked a 16″ bar. I was glad I went back and re-started the run. The weave entry was again very nice even if she popped out late. Again, the layering of the dogwalk was way out of our league for now.
This last run was very frustrating as we seemed totally disconnected. I ended up doing the walk of shame with MeiLi which is something I seldom do. But we simply weren’t working together as a team at all. So, I decided to simple end the run as it did not seem I was going to get her back focused on me. Perhaps it was the heat or just an off day. On to the next training session.