Private lesson and snooker class

On Saturday I drove up to North Carolina for a lesson and a snooker class. When I left Columbia is was blue sky and sunny. When I got to North Carolina is was overcast and cold. It looked like it was going to snow but the temp. was only 40 degrees. Poor "M" , she must have been freezing. I was running around so I wasn't cold but she wasn't running a dog. Luckily in the snooker class there were only 2 students. So our turn came around quickly and we didn't have to much time to be cold.





Private Lesson: First the weave poles. Miley had no problems. She did 12 poles several times without mistakes. Then we practiced entries with 6 poles. She didn't really have any problems and "M" showed me some drills to work on. Kinda like the round the clock stuff with and extra jump. So you have two jumps before the weaves with the second on about 4-5 feet in front of the poles. Then as you move around the clock , you move both poles. Next we worked on contacts. My problem is I didn't work her enough by being behind her and sending her to the contact. That is why she will stop right before doing a 2o/2o. I need to get the plank back out and work more on telling her "touch" while I work positions behind her. She is doing ok with it right now but she isn't driving as much as I want. So I think she is still trying to figure out what I want. And its sad to say I cant remember what else we worked on.


Snooker Class: First, I was terrible at this. I couldn't think fast on my feet. If Gamblers is anything like snookers , I'm not going to do well. In snooker your dog has to take a red jump and then an obstacle that you choose and then another red jump and another obstacle of your choosing. And finally the 3 rd red jump and another obstacle. Then you do the closing sequence. So I walked a course. I set Miley up and when she didn't take the free obstacle that I chose but took another obstacle , I couldn't think on my feet to keep going. Since she was allowed to take that obstacle ( even if I didn't want her to) she was still "in play" of the game. But this would throw me and I couldn't think fast enough to go on to the next red jump. Ugh. The other student who was there had a very nice boarder collie. She ran very well and her dog did what she told it to. ( Miley didn't do what I told her to because of my handling , not because she wasn't listening.)





All in all it was a learning experience and I'm glad I went. It makes me more upset that I didn't go to the gamblers class last week. Hmmmm. We will see what happens there. Next weekend we go to our first USDAA trial. I only entered standard and gamblers on Saturday and Jumpers and gamblers on Sunday. I'm nervous because Ive never done USDAA, so we will see. I also only put her in performance so she can jump a lower height. She not 2 yet, so I don't want her jumping 16 until she is older and has more experience.


Last , on my way home from North Carolina a bunch of lights came on my dashboard. The engine light, VSC, and the track off light all came on. I pulled over and looked up in the owners manual and it just said "take to Toyota dealer". That's not helpful. I called the dealer and the service department was still there. Luckily they said it was ok to drive the rest of the way home ( I still had over 2 hours to go) and to bring it in Monday. I took it in but they really couldn't find a reason for the lights coming on and reset them.



One thing I noticed from watching the video of Miley recently is she is circling me alot! If I hadn't watched the video I wouldn't of realized how much she was doing it. Especially since I watch some earlier video and she didn't circle much at all. Its enough to make you dizzy all the circling she is doing. I guess Ive been ignoring it. This weekend I tried very hard not to let her circle or chase cars. She didn't get to chase one car. With the circling, sometimes I had to walk over the the fence to get her to stop. Other times I was able to step out in front of her and lure her in with food. Why did I let this get so out of control. Now I have much work to do.