I think I've talked before about how poorly our dogs perform on rubber matting. I created a little video of Lexi slipping on the rubber matting at our Stuart seminar.
I guess I should point out that my handling stinks (I was being lazy, and was upset after a pretty frustrating day) so that accounts for a good portion of her wide turns...but she goes wide, slips, and goes out even wider. It's like she tries to control herself, finds it too difficult, and floats out as she slips.
We are trialing indoors at the end of the month, but the dogs are only entered in Steeplechase, and Lexi is in Standard, too, and just on one day. I was thinking of trying some of the spray or wax to help with slipping, but I may just not worry about it.
I was feeling really frustrated in the video because of Lexi's performance...she has gotten SO much better in terms of turns and collection, and we've gotten better in terms of cuing her, but we were just terrible at the seminar. I'm a bit emotional in general, but at the end of the day I thought I was going to cry because it seemed like we hadn't made any progress at all.
My thought is that we've worked so hard to get tighter turns and collection on grass (we're getting there...sort of), and then we go on rubber and it's a whole different beast...I almost want to say why bother? And just not trial indoors. I know we're limiting ourselves, but we're just a bad team indoors and it's demoralizing.
Also keep in mind that during this run I was told to run the perfect dog, so I wasn't supposed to go back and get her, or correct her, just keep going. I was also being given some instructions as I ran. Basically, don't get hung up on the handling, it sucks. Just check out Lexi's slipping.
All matting is not the same. Is it all places with matting? If not, just chuck it up to this place. I don't think you look bad. You are being to hard on yourself. If you dip your dogs feet in water about a minute before you run, that can help . You just want the dogs pads damp. Make sure all the fur on the bottom of her feet is trimmed close.
ReplyDeleteWell, we've only been on two indoor floors. One is the one where the trial is located (I've heard people refer to it as "slippery") and the one from the video above, which clearly Lexi considered slippery!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the positive comments...the seminar was just a tough day all around. Nothing seemed to be going right, and I think Stuart thought we'd been doing nothing since we last saw him a year ago. But usually she is so much better. So it was just a bummer of a day.
I also commented on my poor handling because I really was cuing late, which wasn't helping...but I have other video from earlier in the day where she was going around contact obstacles because she would slip wide on turns, etc...just didn't want people to get bogged down watching/critiquing my handling, and concentrate on Lexi's footing.