Disappointing Run Throughs

Yesterday we went to run throughs with our club.  I was looking forward to truly testing Bentley's contacts.

Unfortunately, it was REALLY ugly.  He missed just about every contact when running in sequence.  I was really bummed out.  We've worked so hard, and I felt pretty disappointed.

In retrospect, we just have some more work to do.  It's really hard for Bentley because we had been clicking and treating for every correct run.  Sometimes he had to wait for his treat for a couple obstacles, but never several.  I was afraid that the lack of feedback would be hard for him, and not only was I right, but he struggled before we even got to the next obstacle.

Take 1:
The highlights: He really does an excellent job with the pinwheel.  I was really happy about that as it's something we've worked on.  He also reads the front crosses well.
The bad:  His teeter is really bad.  We have yet to work on training it, and it shows.  I'm just hoping that he doesn't get faulted in our trial this coming weekend.  You'll also see that I don't handle the discrimination between tunnel/dogwalk well, and it frustrates Bentley.  And then, of course, his contact is bad.



Take 2:

Again, great pinwheel/front cross, not so good teeter, and he misses the discrimination again, but picks it up quicker.  Then he jumps off the contact, again.

Take 3:

He is super tired and hot in this video.  The humidity has been through the roof, and Bentley just shut down.  In the pinwheel he actually leaves me.  This has literally NEVER happened.  Then, he doesn't lay down on the table.  He just looked at me like "please no".  I should have stopped there, but I was really hoping he'd get the contact this time.  Of course not.  I did put him back up and make him be successful.  We also finished the course, and he did well on the a-frame and the weaves looked nice as well.

All in all, I was pretty frustrated.  That being said, I know it was hot and Bentley was tired.  I'm just getting worried about this weekend.  I was hoping he would be ready, but this may be too soon.