Training Thoughts
I get such a kick out of running with Kim, we miss all our contacts and get everything wrong but it’s just fab, I love it.
She has freaked herself out badly on our seesaw though, she had a crazy fly-off last week on her first run and then was a little cautious for the rest of the session but nothing I was too concerned about. She’s had fly-offs before (they used to be a regular occurance when she was younger) and they’ve never bothered her too much. However, she obviously remembered this time because this week she was really worried about it, if I wasn’t right next to her she refused every time. That improved towards the end of the evening, and thankfully Dylan seems to have got over his super-scary see-saw mindset so at least I only have one dog to worry about.
Our next competition is EMDAC at the end of November so we have plenty of time. We’ve sorted Dylan on the dogwalk and the seesaw, just the creeping Aframe to tackle now. We did a bit of work on it but then the various other issues surfaced, and so I’ve held off working on the Aframe until the other contact stuff was improved. It’s definitely something we need to work on before EMDAC though … plus weave entries, my timing for cues (especially tight turns), and a list of other stuff.
The weird thing is that although Dylan has this whole bunch of stuff to work on, it’s nothing compared to all the things that Kim can’t do. Kim and I get by because we have a great partnership and a lot of ring experience, but Dylan has 18 months of foundation work behind him which makes such a difference. He can do much more complicated sequences and courses; he can do perfect flick-flacks and we haven’t even trained them specifically, he just has great directional commands, whereas Kim still has issues with flick-flacks if I’m not stood in the right spot. I’m very pleased all the work we did paid off, and that my training has improved in that I could see what Kim was lacking and did everything I could to combat that. But I am kind of sad that Kim didn’t get the foundation, because with it she would have been twice as awesome as she is now. In some ways I wish I had got Kim 10 years into the future, but I know if I had, I wouldn’t have learnt all the things I have and am doing with her.
We still have a lot of fun, and she’s still awesome.
P.S. Thanks for the vetrap help guys! I think I’ve found somewhere relatively cheap so hopefully Kim will be all wrapped up for Rotherham in 2 weeks.
6 Comments
Vicki aka Giruff
I know what you mean about experience and knowledge with Kim. I feel exactly the same way with Pip and sometimes think she could be so much better if only I’d started with the proper foundations/groundwork that I know about now (especially those damn contacts!). However, I also think if I didnt get Pip when I did, and didnt learn it all with her, then its possible I wouldnt have gotten into all these different things. I think the same is probably true for you and Kim.
Leanne
That’s absolutely it. For me, if Kim didn’t have such unreliable contacts, I would never have been as determined to make sure that Dylan had rock-solid contacts, and so on. It’s made Dylan a better agility dog and me a better trainer. However, when I look back and think about how fast and crazy Kim was at 3-4 yrs old, I know that if she had gotten all the foundation and groundwork that Dylan got, she would have been a truly amazing agility dog (despite the handler!).
It’s hard to find a good way of expressing it because I don’t regret anything Kim and I have done. I do regret not having being experienced or knowledgeable enough to have been able to do more with her.
eli
I know what you mean; sometimes it helps to remember that life is in the living of it.
And then sometimes you think there should have been things lived before you put your best friend through it.
Truth is, they just want to be with you, and play the funny/silly/challenging games with us.
Cat
What you’ve written totally and completely describes the way I feel about Gypsy! I feel quite upset looking back at videos of her in 2006; she was sooo fast but everything I was doing was completely wrong! But, as you said, thanks to her it’s where you are today, which is the same for me.
The only drawback I’ve had from it is that because Gypy’s contacts and weaves were weak, that’s what I’m concentrating on with Marley – which I shouldn’t be, I should be doing more jump work!
Anyway, I’m with you 100% on that, it’s annoying but at the same time it’s kind of heart warming.
x
Leanne
I’m glad there are other people out there who understand!
Eli —
That’s so true. I have to admit I feel that I was let down by the people who were supposed to be “training” me in the past, which is something I really do regret and feel angry about (Perhaps that’s something you can relate to Cat?) Kim did suffer as a result of their actions — I went to training and instead of giving her my undivided attention whilst she played a game she loves, I was often distraught or furious and mostly distracted. Part of life, but I wish it hadn’t been a part of her life.
Diving off into dismal territory there, but thank you everyone for the comments.
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