Catch Up

Alright, I'm a little behind on posting on here so I have some catching up to do.  In Gracie's weave class last Wed. we worked on various angle entries.  Our instructor put a piece of duct tape on the ground for different places we should start from.  Gracie did well except fro the straight on entry.  I assume this is because that's an entry we can't really work at home and I'd been kind of slacking on weave practice that week.  She improved through the class and overall did very well.  This week in weave class we worked on getting to a full 12 poles!  We reviewed 6 poles then put a second set of 6 poles a few feet in front of the first set.  Then the instructor moved one set of 2x2's to make one set of 8 poles and one set of 4 poles with a gap inbetween.  Then it was the jump to 12 poles!  Gracie did really well, but she was definately better at weaving off side than on side.  We'll have to work on that.  We added a jump into the mix too!  Just put the jump in the path of the entry arc.  Gracie handled that well too.  One more weaves class left and then it's on to advanced jumping!

In Gidget's class on Thur. we started by making up our own courses!  My goals were to practice a couple 180s and 270s, get Gidget to stick with me and avoid off course obstacles, and layer a pole.  The 180s and 270s didn't go so well for some reason but we did just fine with the other 2 goals.  The off course jump to be avoided came into play at 7-8 and 14-15, not a problem either time.  The pole was at 14-15 and I was able to send Gidget out and get her back to me with no problems.  It was fun to make up a course but it was hard to remember my course while trying to watch everyone else's courses. 

Our first set course was fun too.  The 270 went better this time.  Most of the course was fairly easy but 10-11-12 was a little tricky and had several handling options.  I was going to try a post turn with a front cross, rotate from 10 to 11 and front cross after 11, but then our instructor showed us another option that looked fun and ended up being easier to set up while running.  It involved a front cross after 10, send over 11 and wrap the standard closer to the teeter.  I didn't have to slow down as much for this and the turns were much tighter than a post turn would give.

Our last course had a fun section too. 9-10-11-12 also had multiple handling options.  I could have rear crossed 10 then treated the rest like a serpentine.  A rear cross 270/serpentine start would have been tricky, would have set her up going the wrong direction after 11.  I could have front crossed after 9 and after 11 then post turn to 12.  Handling 10-11-12 as a serpentine from the left side just didn't seem to work well plus the post turn would have been fairly wide for Gidget.  That's why I ended up front crossing after 9 and 10 and handled the rest like a serpentine from the right side.  Not many of my classmates tried this option, but I really liked it.

There was open agility training on Sat. and a fun course was set up.  I did a front cross after 2 so that I was on the right side of the weaves and pushed Gidget out to 4.  Another front cross was in order after 6.  Then the fun part, 10 and 11 were close enough that you couldn't really run through them, so it's a 180 with a wrap on the outside of 11.  I had to get just ahead of Gidget and the jump standard for a nice tight wrap.  It was fun and worked nicely.  No one running the course, myself included, saw that there was a 20 on the course so I'm not sure how I would've handled that.

I never ran the whole course with Gracie but I got close.  We got some good contact practice in, her 2on2off is looking good and her stop on the teeter is improving.  We did a lot of the course in small sections and Gracie handled it quite well.  My extra practice time with Gidget was spent working on some teeter independence and running really fast around the outside of the course.  It was a fun day with some good practice.

Ok, watch for notes from tonight's practice and a trial report for our trial on Saturday!