Im so excited.

You probably cant tell from this picture but this is a mini ball chuck-it. Its the smaller version of the chuck-it so the pole is shorter. But its for little balls. I've been looking for this forever. Miley gets very excited over the chuck-it. So I usually have to slide the chuck it up my shirt sleeve so she cant see it when we go walk. Its kinda uncomfortable walking with this long hard plastic tube in your sleeve. I knew they made the shorter chuck-it for regular size tennis balls but was hoping they had it for little balls. Yesterday I was at Wal-mart. I hate Wal-mart, not sure why, and try to never go there. But I went looking for a new soft crate . I didn't find a crate but found this instead. WhooHoo. We ha vent used it yet because its been raining. We've had about 4 inches of rain in the last 2 days and I think we are suppose to get 2 more. I wont be able to use my yard this week. It will be a swamp for a while.





After my last run this weekend, a friend was waiting for me at the end of my disastrous run. She said, "You have got to fix your start line". She also gave me the list of reasons why. I'm not sure why but it made a huge impression on me. Its not like I didn't know it was a problem but it really just struck me like a big neon sign. I really respect this person and she would give me advice if I asked her. But she would never just tell me things. I'm really glad she did this.





I did drive up to Charlotte yesterday for a lesson with Meagan. I wanted to work on start lines, tables and tunnels. We had three people in the lesson so Miley would be excited, especially when other dogs run. She didn't break her start line. I don't think she creeped at all. I practiced walking pasted her, running passed her, saying different words and trying to remember to either move first then release or release and then move. That way she doesn't release on motion.


No trouble with the table. But that only seems to be problem at trials. Do you think she knows I cant catch her so she does touch and go? I'm not really sure what to do about the table.



Here was one of the courses we ran. This is to the best of my memory so I'm not sure its correct with distances and stuff.



I did a 2 jump lead out. I am the red person. I did a call the heel type thing and sent her over #3. It did work for me. But Meagan said I should have been more forward, the green person, to give the dog better information and not have the potential of dropping the bar. Also the dog should have been farther back and more of a slice then what I had my dog. ( the red and the green people should be farther to the left on the course but to late to fix it now, hopfully you get the point.)

Next problem was the #6-#7. If you rear crossed behind #6 it would pull your dog over #13. You really needed to cross behind #7. But I was so far behind my dog I just couldn't get there. So I think I crossed behind #6 and ran behind #13 , to get closer to the correct tunnel entrance. As my dog was about to take #8, I was to tell her "tight" and do a false turn to bring her in to me. That worked perfect and she go into the correct tunnel entrance. ( of course Meagan had to tell me this because I didn't tell her "tight" the first time and just tried to do the false turn. She took the wrong tunnel entrance.)

Next problem was #12-#13. I wanted to do a post turn but that wasn't enough of a cue for Miley to turn and she went off course. I had to do a front cross and really call her name to keep her off that #5 jump. I shouldn't have run so close the the jump and held back a little more. I had to much forward motion. We did finally get it. The rest wasn't a problem.