Saturday, August 10, 2013

Why?

Why cant I walk a course and handle it correctly.  Ive been trying to listen and read different things about walking courses and following what people say and I still dont see things. Ugh!!!

I went to a trial this week. I was able to leave work a couple of hours early and head up to NC for the b-match before the trial.  I got there at 5pm.  There were a lot of dogs entered. Two rings running, one for big dogs and one for little dogs.  I think in the little dog ring there were 150 dogs entered. Wow!!    Anyway I got to run twice.  I put Java over the teeter twice in both runs. She had no problems getting on. We did a total of 6 dog walks and she only missed once. Whoohoo!! I think I left there sometime between 7 pm and 8pm. So not to bad.  I was staying at the worst hotel ever.  My friend my the reservations.  She told me the name of the hotel and I usually wouldnt stay there but she said it was ok and she had stayed there before. Ugh, it was horrible.  My room smelled like smoke even though it was non-smoking.  There was a small amount of grass out back, near the dumper with the cats all over it. The grass really needed to be cut. The weeds were above Java's head.  And I drove pass the entrance 3 times because it just looked like a dirt parking lot for trucks. The hotel rents out the parking lot to trucks to spend the night.  I thought maybe I was being silly about staying there but another lady who stayed there because of my friends recommendation, said it was the worst hotel she has ever stayed at. So at least it wasnt just me.

So I got to the trial site at 6:30am.  And stayed until 7pm becuase I didnt want to go back to the  hotel. I finished my last run at 4pm.  So I stayed and helped in the ring and then watched the little dogs run.  When I finally went back to my hotel, this truck was block the entrance into the hotel. It was the only way it. The truck had fallen into a big hole.


I thought maybe I could get around the truck, there are more trucks parked to the left of the picture that you cant see.  Be I figured with my luck I would get stuck in the mud and have to call a tow truck to pull me out.  So I just waited. I took about 30 minutes for them to get the guy out.

Here are my runs from Thursday. I was so excited that Java got on the teeter that I didnt even notice she left before it hit the ground and the judge called it.  Still a very nice run , even if Java was wide in a few spots.



Its funny in the jumper run, I felt like my front crosses were good until I watched the video. Ugh, they were still late. Then I was calling her over the jump before the tunnel but she was just locked on.

The next day was Jww first.  The begining of the course looked tough.  I walked it again and again.  Marking spots where to put my front cross and not go pass the plane of the jump so she didnt take the tunnel. Then making sure to move when she was commited to the jump.  The curved tunnel was the smallest tunnel I have ever seen on a course. The openings were so close together. So I felt like I had to drive into the entrance to get the right one. What I didnt see, even though I saw a couple of dogs struggle with the line, was the line coming out of the tunnel to the next two jumps. As soon as she came out of the tunnel, I knew I was screwed. Ack!!!  I tried to push anyway and made her drop the next two bars.  Why oh why can I not see those things before they happen? 




I felt ok about my runs when Im at the trial. But the next day, when Im home, I just start thinking about it to much and feel bad about my self. Silly, I know. I just want to do better but cant figure out how. Ugh!!! 
I didnt stay for my standard run. My jumpers run was over before 8am and my next run wasnt until 4pm. I just didnt want to wait 8 hours to run my dog, so I went home.
(sorry for spelling errors, spell check wont work today)

5 comments:

Cowspotdog said...

you know - you can't go back and change the past so why worry about it - just focus on what you can do better tomorrow :)

Anonymous said...

What do you do in class or training at home when things don't go as planned? One thing that my instructor has become very big on is our first time through a sequence we have to keep fighting, keep going no matter what. Got a refusal, knocked bar, so what? You're still "alive" if it were a DAM team finals run (her favorite analogy to put pressure on us in class). Got an off course? Run the rest of the sequence IN STYLE! Find yourself out of position for a section of the course? Can you change your or the dog's path to avoid a refusal plane? Practicing these things keeps people from giving up and starting over and teaches you to think on your feet so that when it happens in a trial you can keep the presence of mind to fix a minor flub.

Dawn said...

Here I am rethinking my figure 8 start....the day after...and that was a LOT more calm then running agility! I have no idea how you keep any of that straight or even stay on course yourself, much less your dog! I think it's amazing what you and your dogs do!

Sara said...

I thought your runs were great! Java runs so fast and seems like such a happy girl out there! Agility always keeps us humans on our toes, and I think we never stop learning.

Chris and Ricky said...

That hotel seemed like a total nightmare! I got the heebeejeebee's just reading your description. LOL!