Extra Bits

I managed to get the arena for a little while this week and do some extra work with Rio. My main aim was to introduce her to the dogwalk again, which we did, and perhaps do a bit of sequencing.

She’s now comfortable strolling over the dogwalk, turning on the plank, and isn’t freaking out about the height. I’m having a minor crisis with myself now because I don’t know what to do next. Or rather, I have multiple options but I don’t know which one is the best to choose. Although most of her party attitude is back after her season, she definitely has a softer edge now (which, y’know, it would be awesome if that could go away). I think I will ignore contacts for a while longer and in the meantime I’ll focus on the basics which will help us with contacts, like restrained recalls and drive work.

I’m really happy with how she’s jumping however, she’s confident and happy over Standard height for the most part. We need to go and re-visit some simple grids and probably some V-Bounce work as well as she does occasionally lose her form! Hopefully I can really make sure she’s 100% at Standard before she has her spay.

Dylan also worked really nicely over Standard height, because I’m too lazy to start adjusting jump heights mid-way through training. He’s noticably more confident and smooth, and therefore happier, at this height. It is a dilemma, really; there is no way Dylan would fit into any imagineable Standard measuring height, and there is no way for me to drop him to this height for competition purposes. I’ve never known a dog which makes me question myself as much as Dylan.