Slightly higher
Second week of International league tonight - another tough one!
And, once again, being able to do it multiple times did not seem to improve our performance. It's fun to run these courses though, really showing me where we need work. Today I felt pretty confident about most of the course except 15-18. I shouldn't have been particularly surprised with having issues 6-7, Bright took the jump no matter what I did (she had a whole lot of 'wheee!') and Navarre did the bypass off the jump without an issue, but then went for the dogwalk both times. Kind of like the issue we had last week. He can bypass things, but then getting him to the right obstacle afterwards if there are a lot of options, not so good. Something to work on!
I was surprised with both dogs ended up being dorky on 3-4, I wrapped to the inside, ever so confident that we've WORKED ON THIS. Bright did it nicely the first time, but second time she rear crossed (and then did it again at the end - did I mention the 'wheee!'?), and Navarre wrapped correctly, then backjumped! I think I needed to really be more clear what side I wanted him to come to when I did my blind when he was jumping. Really did not expect for both dogs to have such a problem 10-11, it was like the invisible jump. Bright went into the tunnel on my backside send BOTH TIMES. Wheeee!
Anyway, we were all over the place, but lots of good too. Both dogs had nice teeters, and no problems with their stops on the dogwalk, great weave entrances, nice tunnel threadles. Bright got the section I was worried about the first time through - big bonus points to her! Of course, not the second time though. Let me say, these courses are exhausting to run when you have to keep stopping and fixing everything!
Going to make sure at our next league I take a look at the course before hand and really have it firmly in mind. We'll see if we can do a little better, felt not too connected with the dogs today. Still, I'd rather be going offcourse continuously on some fun international courses than doing pinwheels any day.
I'm contemplating doing some USDAA with Navarre this year. I was actually looking through my coursemaps recently and sorting them by interesting bits I wanted to set up. Not many AKC courses made the cut, but even with the very limited amount of USDAA that I do, I found plenty of interesting challenges that would be fun to play with. So the question is, can Navarre jump 24, and do I want him to? He's about 21.5 inches, 20 inches has been really easy for him, he's never jumped higher at this point. He's still a baby, he'll be two in April. He feels SLIGHTLY less like a floppy puppy at this point. Just a little.
So we looked at 22 inches for the first time, and he FELT slower to me, but I think he looks about the same. He didn't seem uncomfortable, but I felt like he did notice the change.
Bright and Navarre at 22:
Click to viewSomehow 24 does seem much smaller than 26, and it's funny that it's just 2 inches from 22, and I never had an issue with jumping Bright at that height (2.5 inches over her withers). 24 inches is 2.5 inches over Navarre's withers, so, maybe. If he looks comfortable. And there is an actual USDAA trial, which doesn't happen often. With the realization that I usually go batty with all the stupid games at USDAA. Pairs is just the worst.
Got to run my little loaner papillon today, we may be doing trials together, though I have some skepticism that he will actually run for me in the ring. It's never a good sign when every time I throw his ball he takes it and tries to break out of the arena. He's so much fun to run though! So very different then running a big dog. He's getting neutered soon, so I'll be curious to see if that helps with his focus. Such a good little boy though!
I think Haku and Bright are quite pleased the puppy is gone, but not Navarre. He's just a puppy himself, he thought having a Rico visit was AWESOME. We DID get some actual retrieves this morning! Though I certainly wouldn't call the behavior trained. But in my living room with me sitting on the ground with this particular toy, I think I could get him to bring it back to me. Sometimes. Outside of that scenario, well, hey. I think he'll do the 'riverdance' ANYWHERE though - that boy loves his paw tricks! Always enjoy temporary puppies, but, no, does not make me want one for myself. Possibly because Navarre is still such a HUGE puppy - he may never grow up!
