Contacts and Expectations

Hmm, so I spent a lovely half hour watching back Dylan’s agility videos from the weekend. Creeping contacts = definitely my fault. I held his fast contacts for 2s+, but quick released his creepy contacts. I know why I’m doing this, and it’s because I keep thinking it will speed him up. And I know it doesn’t. If he creeps, HOLD THE CONTACT. If he’s fast, quick release. How many times do I need to tell myself?!

Anyway, I practised by varying the time I held his contacts at training, and also did some experiments based on my positioning. He wasn’t perfect this week as he wasn’t coming down as fast as I would have liked, but a huge improvement from the weekend performance. He also works faster if I’m next to him or behind him – the further in front I get, the more he creeps (anticipating the release, I think?). He also doesn’t like me leaving his toy at the bottom of the contact. Dylan finds this confusing and kind of offensive, he glares at me in a very angry fashion and refuses to touch the toy even when he’s released.

We also did a dog swap, and I ran Bailey whilst Emma ran Dylan. Really just a bit of fun, but also to see whether it was specifically me who was causing Dylan’s creeping on the contacts (apparently not, he does it with everyone, so at least I know it’s a generalised issue). Bailey is so fab to run, she’s such a little bomb! She’s so much smaller than Kim though so it’s very weird, and she turns much tighter to the wings so I was a bit out on some of my timing!

I have, of course, spent the last couple of days catching up on all the blog posts and Ruffdogs news from the weekend. It’s amazing how much you guys get up to in two days! This post at brisbeethewhite really struck a chord with me; it’s so well written and eloquent! It touches on the way that I feel about my own dogs, and perhaps about why I wasn’t as excited about some of Dylan’s placings as I might otherwise have been. I want my dogs to do well, but not in terms of 1sts and moving up grades, or flyball points and awards — I just want them to reach the potential that I know they have. This, basically:

I want to go and do the best we can and have a great time.

If we – both me and the dogs – fail on any of those counts (going, having fun and being the best we can be), then I worry about why and no matter how many trophies and rosettes we bring home, I want to be better next time. Even if that means a handful of E’s rather than a handful of ribbons.

I have my camera back, for those who might be interested to know, but it’s going back to the shop again this week. After the switching on/off problem, they fitted a new lens, but now I can’t zoom in on anything without the camera switching off. Much as I love my camera, it’s been more trouble than it’s worth.