String Theories
Dyl’s weave entries are improving at a rate of knots, so chuffed! It’s so nice to see the hard work paying off. No problems now with 90° angles, either side, and we’re working back to being fairly comfortable at 45° (better on the soft side, at the moment). He’s picking up weaves when flicking back away from me too, which has been one of those things I never really thought about until it came up and then realised the poor lad was confused.
Other things to work on though: Contacts. Always, always. They’re much better, much more confident (especially the Aframe) but I want more drive to the very end. Pull-thrus. We have mastered pull thrus in a box (Must.Give.Room.) and Dyl is wrapping wings nicely now, responding to a steady cue, but we still kind of suck on parallel jump pulls. We can do one. Give us two or more in a row and we fall apart. This is because of the MGHM (Must Give Him Room) rule; Dyl needs space, and it’s hard to give him space and clearlycue pull thrus from a distance. Or, rather, I find that hard.
Next topic!
I have been so lax with entering shows, I missed loads of October/November entries which I’m a little bit sad about! On the other hand, I know I have loads of shows planned from the end of November onwards, and I don’t think it does the dogs any harm to have a break from competition and just do some light training. Dylan worked really well at South Durham, the placings are starting to look like they’re within our grasp, and so (conversely?) I’m happy to step back a smidge and work on making everything as good as it can be.
Kim seems fine now, by the way, and will be competing at Rotherham in 2 weeks. She is occasionally hiccoughing and reverse sneezing, but that’s about it. I’m hesitating to call the original episode just a reverse sneezing moment, because it lasted for 20minutes on a fairly constant basis, she had super-pale gums, and it also didn’t feel like reverse sneezing. (Been there, done that!) Coincidentally however, she did have a RS episode several years ago when there was a new concrete wall being built at our old training venue, and our next door neighbour is currently building a new garden wall. Apparently there is something in a new concrete mix … ? Vicki also mentioned central heating being switched on and releasing spores into the house. Who knows, but it’s interesting hearing the theories!