Last League
Last night of league tonight, and, thankfully, the rain took a break so at least the drive wasn't stressful for once. Wettest February in recorded history! Oregon is not fucking around this winter, that's for sure.
Click to viewFun course, my theoretical plan I had from looking at the coursemap did not pan out to reality, and 4-6 went comically bad most every way I handled it (my original plan of blind crossing the exit of the aframe to a threadle just didn't happen). Navarre finally got it though! Bright, nope, into that tunnel no matter what I tried. Then the issues were all mine, not supporting things, not calling, etc. Doggies did great, and we did get more in tune as the weeks went on through league. Not as in tune as I'd like, but hey. And, funny enough, Navarre's team came in 2nd! And Bright's in 3rd. Which seems fair, he had way better scores than she did. Very much enjoyed international league, I hope Daisy does it again next year, super fun.
Look at these cute prizes with fabulous cookies in them! And the cookies were SO GOOD!
So, quick, what height was Navarre jumping in the video above? Perhaps you didn't notice? We had another go at 24 today, and after a week off to think about it, Navarre came back much more comfortable with the big jumps. For classes I had a modified version of the Jumpers course from USDAA nationals set up this week, and decided to run it at 24 as it had the tire, broad jump and triple, all of which Navarre hadn't seen at 24 inches before. No big issues, he had a couple dropped bars, but I was surprised how different he felt running him at that height compared to last week. So maybe USDAA is not off the table after all. Good boy, Navarre!
Navarre continues to be really variable with his weave performance, though he's not having issues weaving (at the moment), the going back and forth between single and double striding is puzzling. Last week, he single strided on turf, double strided on the dirt. This week he single strided on the dirt, double strided on the turf. It's a mystery. I can only assume he'll figure it out. Or not, I suppose there is no rule saying he has to stick to one style, though I can only imagine that would be easier.
So, yeah, trial this weekend, just standard and jumpers, we'll see how they do. Turns out Haku has early morning obedience each day, which means no conflicts with agility. I like getting right to it in the morning anyway. We've been doing our homework, he's now CRAZY freaking screaming high doing his articles at home. I think he vocalizes like that in a trial they'd probably kick us out of the building. But he did seem to need to get the behavior 'jump started' a couple times before he went back to his normal excellent article self. Took Haku to the park and worked crazy go-outs - he was fabulous. Practiced signals and rewarded stands out of motion. Heeling always looks better in practice, he doesn't do any of the forging, crowding he does in class and trials. Well, okay, not as much. ;-)
Also been working a little bit of obedience with Navarre - the boy can't heel. So we've mostly been working on going backwards, he does great at straight with speed, but inside curves, for all we worked on them, he doesn't seem to remember. He still can be very serious, and forget attempting to heel at the park. So, one step at a time. And he, kind of, remembered articles! Love that boy, he's so fricken cute.
Less obnoxious this week ... but still often off in his own little manly world