Lots of Jumps!

Had a fun jumpers course for Gidget's class last night.  It had a lot of space between the jumps which meant remembering to converge!  It seems to be becoming standard for our first run at class to be kind of sloppy, not that our first run last night was horrible but I'll get to that in a minute.  I know our first run is sloppy because Gidget's all excited to be at school and I'm not quite focused where I need to be.  I think a kennel might help with Gidget's excitement and it would keep her from distracting me so I can focus more.  She doesn't have an issue with this at trials where she does get kenneled.  I'll be getting a kennel for Gidget soon, I'll need it when I have the two dogs in classes on the same night on a regular basis.

As for our first run it certainly wasn't our worst ever.  It was short and only had one challenge for Gidget and I.  We had trouble at 5-6, just couldn't figure out that weave entry.  The pole (little black dot) next to the jump certainly didn't help, but I think I just didn't slow down obviously enough.  I'm pretty sure I was stopping as we got to the weave entry which must have confused Gidget as to whether or not she was supposed to take that entry.  Had I slowed down earlier, before jump 5, and kept moving she may have gotten it better.  Our instructor also mentioned that Gidget was looking for a treat at the end of the weaves so I probably reward the weaves a little too consistantly.  I'll have to mix it up with practice at home.

The second and third courses went much better.  The second course had a big figure 8 of jumps.  I used a front cross after jump 5 but considered other options too.  I could have done a rear cross over jump 6 but that easily could have pushed Gidget to an off course jump and at that point I may not have been behind her which is kind of required in order to pass behind the dog.  I realized later that I also could have done a front cross after 4 but it's just so easy to use Gidget's speed and pinwheel work to push her out to 4 and meet her after 5.

The last course had some tricky work with the building's poles.  Had to do some good thinking to do the 4-5-6 sequence without running into one of the poles!  A front cross after 4 would have avoided the poles, but if not set up correctly could easily push a dog off course.  Rear crossing 6 might have been doable, but tricky with the poles there.  Our instructor suggested to another student that she layer both poles and rear cross on the landing side of jump 6, it didn't seem to work too well for her though.  I went with a front cross after 5, it meant running carefully between the jump and pole, but it worked perfectly!  The rest of the course was just fast and fun!  Happy agility!