Lazy November

Dylan and I had a really lazy training session this week, which was a very bad of me considering we have Wilmslow this weekend, which is our first competition in 6 weeks and we probably should have done some more serious training. I had intended to be good and work on wing wraps and proofing Aframe contacts. It didn’t happen! We did some lovely wraps on Medium to warm up, did a little bit of contact proofing, but then just had 30 minutes of blasting courses and being spontaneous.

I do feel a little bit guilty about doing that, but not too much. We have worked very hard over the past month or so on improving Dyl’s turns, and speeding up his contacts. Sometimes it’s nice to have a night off; besides, Dylan makes me laugh and he is so very enthusiastic about it all, so we never have a “wasted” session.

Kim is running brilliantly at training, although she only does 5-10 minutes at the start of the session. She’s sassy and stroppy and just blitzing everything in sight. We are entered at Wyre in December, but Kim may just come to run around the field and bark a lot. I miss her, but I miss her more when we’re on course and hating it.

I find it very hard switching between the two dogs, but it’s getting easier. Kim can turn on a sixpence, even in midair, and she just looks like one of those wick youngsters at the moment, super streamlined and fast. Dylan isn’t quite like that! He can’t turn anywhere near as sharply and he just doesn’t jump as fast as Kim (he can however outrun her on the flat!). But I can cue Dylan a lot earlier, for example for a tight turn or push/pull. Kim shuts down on early cues.

Wilmslow Saturday, Stocksbridge Sunday, and I would like results but would be happy with enthusiasm and effort even if it goes wrong. Remind me I said that on Monday …