To Passive

Yesterday I went to a Stuart Mah seminar.  I drove down in the morning and figured I would get there at 7am. That would give me an hour to play with the dogs and let Java run around a little. But I forgot its dark until almost 8am.  I dont know why daylight savings times is in Nov now. They need to move it up about 2 weeks.  So we just sat in the car unitl maybe 7:40 when you could see.  It was freezing cold.  They had those tall propane  heaters under these tents , that was nice.  It was also suppose to be really windy, 25 mph winds.  I figured I would be miserable. But the sun came out, the winds werent bad and it turned out to be a really nice day.
If you have ever been to a SM seminar then you  know its starts out with you running a full course so he can see what your handling is like and what your problems are.  The course had 25 obstacles and your were to act like you were at a trial.  It started out the tire, 90 degrees to two jumps that serpentined.  Well Miley took the tire and cut behind me.  We got back on course, made some more mistakes and she self released all her contacts.  After wards he came up to me and said that I really wasnt giving Miley any information at all about running the course.  That Miley is guessing and sometimes she guesses right and sometimes she guesses wrong.  Oh boy was that hard to hear.  It made me feel terrible. So two years have gone by since I went to the LM camp and found out I wasnt cuing jumps and I guess I havent improved at all. Ugh! Then I thought, what am I doing with a new puppy if Im not doing it correctly with Miley? 
Next was working on turning our dogs tight. I need to tell Miley that we are turning tight before it happens. My body motion alone is not enough.  Once I did this she was turning so tight I was shocked. Someone even came up to me and said, "I want my dog to turn like Miley".  So we started with two  jumps going back and forth and then added more and more jumps.  Miley was awesome.  Then we ran a course. And it all fell apart.  Im to passive on course.  I need to run it aggressively. Run it like I mean it.   Miley did  much better when I did this. But as soon as she would go wide, I would back off and then things really fell apart. So when I see her go wide, thats my cue that Im being to passive and start giving her more information. Dont just stand there thinking thats going to force collection. Its doesnt.
To bad it always took me a second run to run it aggressively.  I would run and things would fall apart and S would tell me you are being to passive. So then I would run it again, and she was much better.  I hope I can remember this when I step to the line.
We also did some of the drills that have been in "Clean Run".  There were 8 jumps and tunnel combination.  You had to do the 8 obstacles and then one other obstacle of your choice , then run the sequence again, add another obstacle at the end ( a different one) and then run the sequence again. So you ran the sequence 3 times in a row. Wow that really got your head thinking.  Most people can run an 8 obstacle sequence correctly but add that little twist to it and run it three times back to back. You will really see where your problems are. So that was 27 obstacles run several times in a row. What a lot of running.
Then we did another drill that was in "Clean Run".  You have  jumps and a tunnel.

 I dont know if the distances and stuff are correct but you get the idea.  You had to do 5 jumps. Every time you took a wing jump , you had to take the tunnel entrance furthest away from that jump. Every time you took a wingless jump , you had to take the tunnel entrance closet to the jump.  And you had to do a total of 5 jumps. This was to help you with your snooker skills. Of course Miley and I had trouble. She kept flinging off at taking that side jumps that were in the middle of the tunnel section. You were to use the jumps at either end of the tunnel.  So he had me put Miley at a wing jump, then go stand halfway between the tunnel, turn and face Miley. Then call her to come front.  She did that with no problem. So he had me do it again, once she came front,  turn and put her into the correct tunnel entrance. Well when I turned it  flung her out over the  middle dummy jump.  He said she is using my motion at a cue to fling out and take an obstacle. So I had to work on treating her to come front, turn and keep her with me  while moving and send her into the correct tunnel entrance while giving her treats. We had a very hard time with that. LOL 
So I have lots of things to work on and now I feel bad about going to the trial that is at that same field next weekend. I feel like Im no where near ready. I have to many problems.  But Im going to try and go and just run it like I mean it. Be aggressive.  
Poor Java came with us and spent a lot of time in the crate. There were no breaks during the day and lunch was very short. So you got a lot of bang for your buck. I did take her out at lunch but it was over quickly. I felt bad that I brought her. To much crate time.  I thought about going straight home but since she was crated so much I didnt think that was fair to her. My plan was to spend the night at the beach. So I drove out to the  beach. Now it was very dark and cloudy. Im not sure why. I thought it was suppose to be sunny all weekend.

There were lots of deer out on the island. This one was unusual, so  I took a picture.

I cant believe Miley can still run after all that work. It was a lot of running courses. There were only 6 people in the seminar and two jumps heights. So you had lots of time on course.

Sorry the pictures are do dark. It was just so cloudy.

I cant believe this guy was swimming.  I didnt see anyone with him. Crazy. The water looked rough to me.

If there had been more light my pictures would be awesome. Darn.