Ball at the Beach

Oops!

Oops Missed again!

Im going to get it this time.

Got it!!

This one I added just because Miley is standing in the water. Shocking.

Tomorrow trial is really small. Excellent JWW only has a total of 36 dogs in it. Wow, thats a small trial. I think one ring totals with fast classes too is 76 dogs. So it should be over early. Thats good because it suppose to be 88 degrees and its in full sun.

Practice

I went to the field last night. We set up a open jumpers course to run. Miley did really well. She did drop one bar on each run. Hmmm.... The end of the run was an off side tunnel entrance after a few straight on jumps. Of course we didnt get it the first time. So I worked one jump, use off arm cue and call her, reward. Then again. Then when I got her the next time I sent her into the correct tunnel entrance. Then next time I ran the whole course she got it the first time.
Right before I went home I ran the course some what backwards to practice getting into the weaves at speed. Since several of the courses this weekend had that and we were unsuccessful at it. The good news was as Miley is coming out of the tunnel she is looking at me. The bad news is, she was looking at me and missed the weaves. I really had to hang back and show no motion to get her locked onto the weaves.


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I did just a little box work. I made the left turn into the grid work softer (per Meagan suggestion) and she had no problems.

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Grid work

I added some more grid work to the running a-frame box. I rewarded three times for bad hits. I was on a side and couldnt see she wasnt hitting correctly. Im going to have to work on that turn into the grid. All three missed were the same turn.



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My crazy dog

Miley makes me laugh. She is quirky and happy. When I watch this weekends videos it cracks me up. If we ever get it together we are going to be awesome. But until then I will just have to have a sense of humor. Last night when I came home from the trial Roxy had rolled in something in the back yard. Needless to say she had to be washed. I put her in the sink to wash her and Miley bolted out the back door. She would not come in the house or even near the back door. An hour later she was no closer to coming into the house. It got me thinking I may never fix my table problems because she hangs on to issues. ( the issue here is not wanting to be washed because she hates it) An hour after that she is still outside and I decided enough is enough Im going to get a clicker and try to get her inside. I go outside and I cant find her. I tell my husband I cant find Miley. He comes out and says, "she is right there". "Where?". "Right there standing on the dogwalk contact. Is that her punishment for leaping her contacts at the trial?" And there was Miley just standing on the end of the dogwalk contact. It was just to funny. I wonder what she was thinking? ( the above picture isnt from yesterday but I thought it went with the story)
Ive been thinking about this weekend. Even though the trial was very small there were lots of great dogs. Some dogs were great the whole course and some just had small moments of greatness. I love watching people set their dogs up at the start line. I love the people that can take their leash off, hand it to the leash runner and then go set their dog up. Me, Im way to scared to do that but would love to try it some day. It shows what control they have. I saw lots of really fast dogs. Some of them seemed on the verge of being out of control. Slamming into the tires and barely holding on to dogwalks. But one dog really stuck out. I thought it was the smallest border collie I have ever seen. It was wicked fast but under control. It turned out it was a border jack. Wow, what a dog and handler team they were.
I think Miley and I are starting to get it together. We are now having more runs that are in sync. I hope that continues. But even if it doesnt, its ok. Its been a fun road, most of the time.

Day 2 , Im beat

The good news was that Miley slept all night and I didnt have to even turn the tv on for noise. It was pouring rain when we left the hotel but it turned into a very nice day. I was in the first class of the day, snooker. I went to walk Miley and the mountains were really cool looking. The clouds and mist hanging over them and then a little bit of sun coming thur. Very cool. I wanted to go back and get my camera. But I needed to get Miley walked before our run. I was torn what to do. Which got me thinking, I must not be as addicted to agility as I thought. LoL. I didnt go back and get my camera. Lol But it was a pretty sight.

Here is the snooker course map. Someone told me it was the easiest snooker course she had ever seen. All I could say was , "good". We had a very nice snooker run. Miley didnt creep on her start line. She did all 3 reds to a color and then we started the closing. She was doing great and then ran past the weaves. Silly dog. I thought yesterday she couldnt get in at speed but the more I thought about it, she just didnt want to slow down. Its all about speed for Miley. Its faster to run by. LoL I had decided before my run that she was getting in the weave poles if we spent the whole 50 seconds of our run trying. So I told her "Nope" and she went into a big circle. I didnt care, I told her weave. I dont know how she did it , but she did. She was flying and coming in at such an angle. So we are back on course. Then I was so worried that should would miss the jump #7A coming out of the tunnel that I took off for that end to soon and she took the wrong tunnel entrance. Ugh! (It doesnt look like it on the course map but the jump was off set and you saw the red jump coming out of the tunnel). So we didnt "Q" but still got second place and I was happy for it. LoL

Next was Grand Prix. I was a little nervous but after her really staying with me and coming into me on the snooker course I figured we could do it.


We were doing well until my bad front cross after #9 and I was standing almost blocking the teeter. I had already said "teeter" to Miley. I went to move out of the way and turned my shoulders. I look down and Miley is on the teeter and when I turned it pulled her off. Crap. We got back on course. She went into the tunnel but got into the 2nd weave pole. I thought about fixing it but decided not to. Then she is flying across the dogwalk and flys off the end. Huge leap over the contact. I was so shocked I couldnt even finish handling the course. Im not sure if she even took the last few jumps. This dog is crazy. Anyway to go faster, dont do the weaves and fly off your contacts. So you leave the ring feeling bad but I have to tell you, Meagan will always make you feel better. She always has something positive to say about your run.

I almost left after that run. Not because it wasnt great, I was just tired and had a 2 hour ride home. But I decided to stay. And good thing I did. Last was our starters jumpers run. Nice course but you know Miley and I can screw up even the easiest courses. LoL There wasnt anything to slow her down, you know weaves, contacts and tables. And she was awesome. This was the only video I have from today.
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Fletcher USDAA trial

Well its been a long day! I got up at 4am to be at the trial by 7am. Miley still needs to be measured. She got her third measurement but there is no CMJ and so far there hasnt been at any of the trials I've been to. So I have to keep keep getting measured. So even though I needed to be there by 7am to be measured I didnt run until 12noon. I hate waiting. While waiting I took Miley out to run and play ball. I also got a couple of cute pictures before the rain came in.








Apparently the President is here too. Yesterday, when he flew in, they closed all the roads. So some people couldnt get to the trial for a while. All I saw was the airplane. This is taken from the trial site.



My goals for the weekend was to just try to react quicker so Miley deosnt realize she was wrong. Im also downing her when she creeps at the start line. I really felt like I was successful until I watched the videos. They look so bad but it didnt feel that bad to me. I didnt get the pairs run on tape but it was just a big loop around the outside of the ring. Miley missed the weave poles. Im not sure what that was about. I didnt watch my partner run. I was to busy trying to keep Miley happy. She was just giving me the funnest look. You have to wait in the ring until your partner is done running. Miley wasnt sure why we werent running to get treats since our run was finish. The other part to that was they were walking Steeplechase and I hadnt been over there yet because of this class. So Meagan took Miley after my partner finished and I ran over and walked the steeplechase course. Im sure Miley was really happy about that. After I finished walking I took Miley and gave her some treats.
The first video is gamblers starters. I was able to keep it together until after the dogwalk. I meant to front cross to bring her over the jump that was marked #1 for the gamble. But I forgot and pushed her over the jump next to it and then it went down hill from there.
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Here is the steeplechase (performance speed jumping). She crept to much and dropped the first bar. My front cross was in the wrong place and she missed the jump. Totally my fault. Both times she didnt do the weaves, not sure why. BUT, I was able to get her back on course after the mistakes. This is huge for us.
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We finished about 4:30pm. I thought Miley was tired. I thought wrong. She just couldnt settle at the hotel room and just kept barking no matter what I did. I finally took her in the rain to a park and made her walk. But when we got back, she still couldnt settle. I finally just ignored her and she fell asleep. Thank Dog.

Box work

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Here is more box work for the running a-frame. Nothing to exciting to watch. Of course its exciting to me but probably not to you. LoL.
Yesterday we went to the field and practice. I ran some small sequences and mostly worked on me trying to keep going when mistakes are made. I was pretty successful. I think she only circled maybe once or twice. I worked a lot on moving downs too. I have a long way to go on that but she is getting better. But once her excitement level gets to high, she cant down. But I defiantly see improvement.
I bought myself a couple of new things from Clean Run. I bought that book, "Agility Right from the start". Ill let you know what what I think. I also bought a "Ready Treat". Im having to condition Miley for the noise it makes because she was scared of it at first. Ill try to post some video soon. I case you dont know, "Ready Treat" is a treat dispenser. Its much, much smaller than Manners Minder but can only dispense one treat and then you have to refill it. But for me thats ok. It can hold any treat you want, so that was important to me. But its half the price of Manners Minder. I also bought some liver treats but none of the dogs are to excited about them. Hmmm....

Wordless Wednesday

Snookered out

This weekend Ive entered a USDAA trial. Only classes without a table. Ive also entered several classes that I haven't done before. Snooker, pairs and Grand Prix. So yesterday I went up to Charlotte because Meagan was offering a snooker class. Miley was kinda crazy in the beginning. She was also barking at me in the car on the way up. Thats not something she usually does. I didnt complete the snooker course once without being whistled off ( but you didnt have to leave, you could keep going). I dont hold high hopes for this class this weekend but you never know. Miley was not good at long lead outs. She held her stay but would bypass the jump I was near. I guess we need to work on that.

After the snooker class I took a lesson. I walked the course ( map above) but I never seem to get that quit right. So first I ran it, and I think we did it right. ( I cant remember). What I did was an oppisite arm cue at #2, then sent her over #3, then rear crossed to get her in the tunnel.But then Meagan had me use an off arm cue at #2 and #3one time, then the next time a front cross after #3. Both of those worked much better then me pulling and pushing. I really need to view courses differently. See where a cross could be and try it differently to help me get the flow better. I get one way set in my mind and thats what I do. And of course I think Im right until Meagan shows me differently. LoL It definitely felt better doing a front cross. Then the same with #6 to 7. The front cross really work, I kept pushing Miley off course into the tunnel until I did the front cross. What was weird was, Miley wouldnt get on the dogwalk or the teeter again at this building. She did that same thing the last time we were there. Weird. The contacts dont have any grit to them and one side of the dogwalk is slatless. But I think is the lack of grit that is causing the problem. ( but with Miley, who knows).

As far as the table. Meagan doesnt want me to do any tables for 12 weeks. Just work on mat work near agility stuff and at trials. Also to click and treat when she is going to the mat, not after she gets on. Im also going to do crate games. First with a crate. Then someone on the agile teach list, had suggested using crate games but with the table. So I will go to that after Im done with the crate. ( thanks Kathy for suggesting the agile teach list).

And as far as the a-frame , Im going to keep teaching the box and grid work for a running aframe. Once I get through all the grid work and we are ready to start on the a-frame itself, Meagan will help me evaluate Miley and see if it will cause her to jump the contact. (I hope that makes sense).

My neighbor is trying to sell their house. They have a tiny back yard. But they said people told them that my agility equipment is a negative. Well , sorry. I dont have any place else to put it. Its not like I have garbage in my back yard.

Ive been really tired lately and just feel negative about life. I feel like Im killing myself to do everything I need to get done. I feel like both my kids are not stepping up to the plate. Why? I always thought I was a good parent but apparently not. I dont know how to motivate them to do what they need to do. I feel like giving up. Im tire of being in charge of all this crap. I cant even get a dog to get on the table at a trial. Sorry to end of a negative note but thats just life sometimes. And works not any better either. All these kids lying all the time. I just cant take it anymore.

Pictures and quirks

These are most of the pictures I bought from the trial. I usually dont buy so many but you got 10 for the same price if I bought 5.

Miley has quirks. These quirks cause her to have aversions to things. First she hates the car. Im not sure why. She has never appeared to be car sick. No vomiting, drooling or panting. Her breeder had her in the car frequently as a tiny baby. The only thing I can think of is when she was 13 weeks old she got Parvo. The vet would let me take her home every evening since no one would be in the office during the night. So I'm just guessing but maybe it had to do with going to the vet everyday for 5 days straight and getting IV 's, shots and SQ fluids. So if she thinks we are going in the car she wont come to me. This is a problem since we go in the car alot. I take them to the park or field almost everyday. Then the leash got involved. She started associating the leash with going to the car. Which led to her not coming to me at the end of a run because I would put the leash on. (this also happens else where when needing to put a leash on) So I retrained all that with a clicker and "come close" command. I have a special leash that I only use for agility and never use it to go to the car. ( at leash I try to. I do remember making the mistake one time of going to the car with special leash on). See quirks.

Another quirk is when walking in the woods. If a piece of pine straw or other forest material gets stuck on her back legs fringe area she stops walking and wont move. She just stands there and all the pulling in the world wont make her move. I now know to check her back fringe area and as soon as the offensive item is removed, she resumes walking again. How much can a leaf or pine straw bother a dog. The last quirk I can think of is, there are times after being in the back yard that she will act like she is scared of me. If I go to the back door she wont come in. If Im sitting on the couch , she will come in but just acts like she is scared of me and will dart out the doggie door if I get up. I now know that when she acts like this, it means she has poop stuck to her rear end. I keep her clipped back there but it still seems to happen. The reason she acts scared of me is she doesnt want to get in the shower and get washed. We have a removable shower head so its easy to clean the dogs in there. She hates it. So you can see how she links these things together.And if she doesnt like what ever it is, she isnt going to do it no matter how many cookies you have. I just wish I could figure out the thing that has made the table a problem. Then I could fix it.

Thursday practice

I took Miley out to the field to practice. I set this up. The first time we ran it , I had the same mistake as at the trial. Swung wide after 11 so she missed 12. 180 post turns are not our strong point. I had decided to put a verbal cue (maybe Meagan told me to do this , I cant remember) on the 180. I use "around". When I ran it the second time, I said "around" and she got it with no problem. I need to remember that. She ran very nicely at the field except she kept dropping the triple. If I set her up at the end of the tunnel, she kept the bar up. When I sent her through the tunnel, she dropped the bar. I rewarded heavily for keeping the bar up and finally she was able to do it correctly. Of course I didn't have my video camera because I didnt think I wanted to video anything. But it probably would of helped me to figure out what was going on.

I have decided not to do any table work for a while! I dont know how to fix the problem and Im over it.

I got out of the shower this morning and my hair dryer no longer worked. My son has been using the old insurance health card and now all the billing is screwed up. Ugh!! Stephanie is hounding me to get her ear cartilage pierced. Uh, dont think so.

Just Pictures

Wordless Wednesday (almost)

After our run.

Follow-up thoughts

Just some thoughts about things that happened this weekend. First off, I now see what I did wrong on the Exc. Fast course when Miley went one way and I went the other. My arm came up and looked like a rear cross cue and thats what Miley read. Good dog Miley.

Next the table. I really, really thought she was going to get on the table at the trial. Well,this just shows we have more work to do. So while at the trial, I took Miley's mat ( which is now 8 X 8 inches) and put it down around the outside of the ring. I worked on sending her to the mat. There is one time when she didnt get on. I had put the mat down next to some equipment sitting outside the ring. Thats when she couldnt do it. Hmmm. Also last night she was very excited. I took her in the back yard to play with a toy. She kept jumping on and off the table and then circling around waiting for me to throw the ball. So I decided to try and send her to the table. She couldnt do it. I went inside and got some treats and a clicker. So she knew I had treats and I sent her to the table. She jumped on and off. So I sent her one more time and when she hit the table I clicked. But then she jumped off. But after hearing the click, she turned right around and jumped onto the table and went into a down. So I think excitement and stress is both interfering with her table performance. More work to do.
Next the A-frame. Ive been trying to figure out how to train a running a-frame. I've been working on the box but Im worried . She likes to jump off the a-frame early or high. I think the box encourages jumping. Probably not for most dogs. But Miley has had a history of jumping off. And since its all kinda bounce work, I think that it what will happen. So last night I lowered the aframe alot. ( I almost broke my a-frame because I didnt ask for help and tried to do it myself. So I lost control of the a-frame and it slammed flat to the ground. The hingh at the top is now bent but still seems to be working ok. I almost started crying). Ive decided to have her just run down the a-frame and only reward when she runs thur the bottom. No reward for leaping or bouncing even if in the contact. So we'll see how that goes. Since it is similar to what you do on a 2o/2o you just dont stop, Im hoping that it works. I dont want to use a hoop becuase fading something like that doesnt always work well.

All Done!

Well, the trial is over and we all survived. LoL Im so glad to be done with it. I still need to do some paperwork for the trial but I have a week to get it done. Then I need to put the next trial into the AKC but after that I can coast for a little while. Im even more glad that evil field trip with the school is done. Man I dread that thing. Its almost summer. WhooHoo!!
Miley had an awesome standard run. I didnt put her on the table. The judge knew about my table issues and she came to me later and said, I really think she would have done it this time. Then she did say, the second time she passed the table,she saw her turn her head and look at it. Poor miley. She was probably thinking, "I hate that thing".
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Funny, they were calling my name for the other ring while I was in this ring. But the gate knew I had a conflict. So when I went over, he had moved me to the bottom. Which was really only about 6 dogs. But it helped.
Our JWW round wasn't as stellar. I need to react quickerwhen something goes wrong. After she took the jump after the weaves, we loose that connection. I think I was just to far forward and pushed her off. I decided to just start running because she started to circle. Well we missed the next 2 jumps because Miley is going wide. I finally said to her while we are running, "Can you take a jump?". And she did.LOL
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To Tired

We didnt have very good runs today. I didnt attempt the table. Im only posting two videos. One is of her standard run. She face plants coming off the teeter and I didnt even see it. When I turned to see what she was doing because she wasnt coming up beside me, she was already up and running again. Poor Miley.
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Then here is part of our last run, excellent fast. This pretty much sums up today.
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We just had an off day.

She thought about it.

We had a pretty good trial today. No big crisis. ( knock on wood) First up was Excellent Fast. I thought the send looked pretty hard because you had to be on that side of the course to get to the line. I wasnt to confident that we would do it. We had a nice run. Im posting the course map. She sent over the jump circled with green twice. Watch the video and let me know why you think she didnt give me the send bonus. I cant figure it out. I didnt watch the video until tonight and I still cant figure it out.




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Next was open Standard. I was so confident that she would get on the table. But she didnt. When she missed it the first time, I tried getting her excited with my voice and she almost got on, then turned off and said ,"I cant do it". I tried one more time, then went on. The good thing was no stress when I pulled her off the a-frame rear crossing and after the table we got back together. So that was good.
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Last was Exc. JWW. She seem kinda slow coming out of her crate and over at the practice jump. But she was on fire. Great run except for the wrong tunnel entrance. I was so happy we were still running together. After last weekend , I was kinda worried. Nope, she did it.
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She got me!

Ok, Ive been reading this lady's blog for a while now. Last week she wrote about how she was quiting agility. Now just so you understand , she has been talking about being burned out of agility in a few post. So not only did she write that she was quiting agility but she she decided it would be unfair to keep her dogs. She was going to give them to agility homes. I was so up set I immediately deleted her blog from my reading list. http://dogblog.finchester.org/ (Taj Mutt Hall dog blog)
But then there was another blog I like reading that I would link from her blog list. I couldnt remember the name of it. I kept searching peoples blogs trying to find it listed some where. Finally I found someone who had Taj MuttHall on there reading list. So I clicked over so I could get to the other blog. I decided to read her latest post to see if she got rid of her dogs. It was an April fools joke. OMG, I laughed my head off. She got me good.

Here is a short video of Mileys box work for the running a-frame. We are about 5 inches shy of being at the 9 foot mark.

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Spring Break

Its been busy not nothing to exciting. Yesterday I took the dogs to the park but this time I went early so the heat wouldnt get to Miley. On the way there I stopped at Woodly's Garden Center. They had some pretty setups outside and I thought it would be a good spot to take pictures. The store wasnt open yet so no need to worry about a lot of people. I did ask if I could take the pictures and they said sure. They even said I could bring the dogs inside and take pictures. But I didnt. Here are some of the pictures.





Then Stephanie wanted to go out on the boat. So we did that. The pollen has been so bad this year. Everything is covered with green pollen. If you leave your car outside for 2 hours, its covered. If you look in the distance, green fog. I feel really bad for people with allergies. I cant imagine. Anyway we tried to find a place to beach the boat but all the good spots were taken. We did find a spot. The pollen is all in the water and washing up to shore. Just so you get the full effect here are some pictures.
I know, shocking, Guiness is in the water. But if there are waves then he gets very excited and forgets he doesnt like water. Thats not muddy water, its the pollen.

Miley with pollen on her mouth from drinking that nasty pollen water.

If you look to the left of the picture ,you can see the pollen particles in the water.

Then later that day I help out with a CGC test that our club was giving. I was beat by the time I got home. Today Im taking Miley to the field for a short work out. I have lots of things to do to get ready for the trial. Tomorrow starts set up. Im also picking up one of the judges from the airport. Should be another full day. I dont have high expectations for this trial. Its hard to be in charge of a trial and concentrate on running your dog. I am going to try and get Miley on the table. So keep your fingers crossed. My only hope is to run more like myself. To get that same feeling that I have when we practice.

Thoughts

We went to the field to teach class tonight. That seems like an oxymoron.LoL I dont feel like I know enough to be teaching people but Im not being paid . I am doing the best I can so hopefully it all works out. Its been very hot. I think is was 94 degrees today. I tried running Miley before class. She did really well but was wiped out pretty quickly. I set up the beginning of the course from this weekend. I left my book at home so I just pulled it from my head. She was much faster then this weekend. Her yards per second on the jumpers course was only 4.5 yards per second this weekend. I knew she was slow. Anyway, when I ran the course tonight I handled it much more aggressively. I really tried to pay attention to how I did things and how it felt. Way different then this weekend. No wonder my dog misses jumps. Why do I handle so differently at a trial. I dont feel like Im worried about people watching me but that must be it. I know Im already thinking about it for this weekend. Students from class will be there. If they see me run crappy , they may think, "Why are we taking a class from this person. She cant even run her dog". I know I hate going to social events. When I have to go to a party for my husbands work, ugh the worse. The whole time Im thinking, "Can we go yet". I just want to get out of there. So really what is an agility trial. A big social event. ( lets really screw with my head, LoL)
Im still working on the running a-frame. I have the grid set up but the distance is only 8feet from the last jump to the end of the box. I need to get it to 9 feet. So I will slowly increase the distance. Otherwise she looks good. I had to change from just throwing a treat to throwing the whole bait bag because it was too hard for her to see the treat. Then she started tracking from my hand to the treat instead of looking where she was going and slowing way down. Once I changed to the bait bag her speed increased. I did run her on the a-frame tonight. I didnt say touch because I dont want to ruin her touch command on the dogwalk. Only one time did she jump off but she still hit the contact. Will see what happens this weekend.

Happy Easter!

Today's Trial

Isnt this llama cute. What wasnt cute was our Excellent fast run this morning. So you wont see any pictures of that. At the time I couldnt figure out what went wrong. We just werent connected. Then I realized I didnt look my dog in the eye to make a connection before I released her. Why must every run be a lesson? So the whole run was pretty terrible. She was just all over the place. She didnt stop on her 2o/2o on the a-frame. Then she really started running and I called her back to me instead of just going with it. Im not sure what I was thinking.
So for our next run I needed to do things different. I took her and played ball with her for a while but it was really humid so she didnt last long. Plus there was this plank with feet in the area where I played ball with her. She kept jumping on it like it was a table. Hmm. Im not sure that was good for her to be doing. So I took her further away. I put her up before her next run to give her some down time before our run. I felt like we were more connected then the first run. But we missed some jumps and she seems slow to me. But over all it felt like a nice run. No circling or going off course. Its funny , I thought we did well. But after watching the tape to night, it doesnt look good at all.

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I didnt stay for standard because my mom was cooking Easter dinner and I needed to be back home by 1:30. Just so you dont think we are total slackers. My husband got up at 5am with my mom to get the Turkey ready and in the oven before we left. We also brought several pans of food with us so my mom wouldnt have to make so many side dishes.
Of course my head has gone back to being worried. Why was she running slow? Why did she jump the contact? And just so you can see how crazy I really am. See this picture and how she isnt putting all her weight on her back left foot. Thats the first thing I noticed. Maybe its just because her foots in the water.

Whoopee- Schools out!