Shut Up and Drive

Dylan is sound as a bell now, although I didn’t push our luck by taking him training. He is still being lead walked and if he continues to remain sound, he’ll return to normal life on Friday. Now I’m feeling more confident that he’s not crippled, I’m rolling my eyes a bit since of course he went lame this past weekend. We haven’t competed since December and won’t compete again until March, and I didn’t intend to take four months off.

Rio is getting her back to her fiesty self, although we’re not quite there yet. Still missing a bit of her edge. She was sassing me at agility this week, with the barking and the body slamming, which was a relief and an improvement. We worked on some more difficult jumping sequences Grade 3-5 type this week and she rocked it, including the layering. Fun stuff! Need to remember that Rio does not require cheerleading, I really need to just shut up and run. I’ve also been sneaking her up to Standard height and it’s looking pretty good, she’s jumping confidently and extending/collecting really nicely. It is nice to have a dog who doesn’t freak out when they knock a pole too; Rio is an efficient jumper, she doesn’t add unnecessary height and as she’s still learning how to adjust her stride, she does sometimes clip the poles (especially now the height is creeping up). Unlike Dylan, Rio just carries on without a second glance. I love that.

I really need to do some contact training with her at some point however, Rio still hasn’t been introduced to the Aframe or the seesaw, and we’ve only wandered over a dogwalk once. I’m not feeling much contact motivation right now. We’re just having so much fun playing with jumps and tunnels, and she still feels like such a puppy. Maybe she’ll be good to go for some Jumping classes at the end of summer. Maybe.