Contacts and weaves

Yesterday I set up some weaves. First I set up 3 stick in the ground poles and then a tunnel. With this set up she was 65% successful. Then I added 3 stationary poles on a metal base to make 6 poles. What happened? I had an 18% success rate . All correct entries but the failures were not completing the 6th pole. Not good, huh? Then I set the WAMs with the poles in a slight "V". She had a 70% success rate. This time all failures were missed entries. All missed entries were on the right side of the poles. So I read the special clean run issue on weaves and Susan Garretts book that at the end has the info about 2 X 2 weaves. What I decided I needed to do is back chain the weaves with her weaving away from me. I also decided to coat my metal base weave poles with a new coat of paint and put sand down on them. They have been slippery and I thing that is part of the problem.
What happened today? I back chained the weaves of 6 poles , starting with the 6th pole. That way she learns to do all the poles and I can see what the problem is. I used the new poles bases with the sand. Again I put a tunnel at the end. Well guess what? We had a 87% success rate after finishing the back chaining. The only failure was one missed entry. What made the difference? I don't know. I think back chaining helped. But I really think adding the sand to the poles helped her footing out. She never liked my poles and I knew that sometimes she did slip. Don't get to excited. We will have to see what happens the next time we weave.


Next was the contacts. What happened there? When I put a tunnel at the end of the dogwalk ,she ran right off without stopping. I think this was because of how I trained the running contacts. So yesterday and today I worked on back chaining that too. Its still iffy on when she stops. She either runs off or stops just before getting to the 2o/2o. But on the end that didnt have a tunnel and had a jump. Perfect 2o/2o. So more work there too.
I have been stressing about the trial this weekend. I kept thinking maybe I shouldn't go. It might be a disaster. Its causing me stress. Then it hit me. What am I doing. This is suppose to be fun. So what if she misses the weaves. So what if she screws up the contact. That's what I'm there to see and to have fun. I need to lighten up.
Last, I started a notebook on my training. I thought just doing this blog would help. But I need to be able to see what I worked on quickly. Plus at the end of my training I'm putting what I want to work on the next time I train. Its making me think more about what specific training I'm doing.