Late Trial Update

Gracie and I had our last two trial days at Soccerblast for the year a couple weeks ago.  It was a 0/4 weekend, but had some good things.

Our standard run on Sat was really nice, minus the weaves.  She had the entry but popped out near the end.  I was worried at the start because Gracie had fixated on the husky that ran before us.  It took a minute, but her attention turned back to me for the run.

Sat jumpers wasn't so nice.  She skipped a jump to go check out a tunnel, then took a wrong jump after the tunnel (this was a really tricky part that a lot of teams missed), and popped out of the weaves.  After the weaves the run ended nicely.

Sun wasn't much better than Sat.  The husky was before us in standard again, though I got Gracie's attention back quicker this time.  Gracie did something this run that she hasn't done in quite a while, she got the zoomies!  It was really rather entertaining for me, to see her running full out just being goofy.  It was probably stress related, but I'd say she zoomed that stress right out of her!  She even got her 2o2o on the A-frame for the first time at Soccerblast!  Do enjoy this entertaining video:

Of course getting the zoomies wore Gracie out.  She was rather pokey for her jumpers run.  She popped out of the weaves again.  Then I went and got distracted by the loudly barking black lab at the start line (Gracie didn't even see him) and pulled Gracie off the last jump.  Otherwise it was a decent run.

So not a great weekend Q-wise, but I kind of enjoyed it.  We just have to figure out this weave issue.  I was talking with a classmate about weave issues and came up with a couple thoughts.  One, maybe I don't treat the weaves in trials the same way I treat them in class.  If we're just practicing weaves, I often run way ahead as a way of proofing and building speed.  Though I've paid attention in the last couple full course classes and I usually do stick with her to the end of the weaves depending on the course.  Two, my classmate had read something about dogs not seeing the last two poles in a set of weaves because there's nothing past them to show them that the weaves keep going.  The white walls of Soccerblast wouldn't help with that either.  So I set up 14 poles in practice with the last two poles being all white (no colored stripes) and aiming directly at the white walls.  She weaved the whole thing every time!  I couldn't (easily) mess her up!  So I'm hoping her weave issue is just nerves at such a big venue.  We're headed to La Crosse next weekend for the start of their trial season.  We'll see if there's any improvement there.