Not a great night in class tonight. The dogs were off last week since we were out of town, and they haven't done any work this week since it has been raining all week...tonight we had class and I ran Lexi the whole time. It went poorly. And it wasn't her fault.
I know that the sequences are meant to be challenging, but I can't help but feel like I am failing in my training. Lexi made multiple mistakes on every sequence, and they were all my fault.
I felt like no matter what I did, I couldn't get her to get it right until the 3rd try. I would accelerate to push her to a jump (that was out at an angle), and then from that jump to another with a forward send, but she wouldn't read it because of all the acceleration from the earlier push. But if I didn't accelerate, I'd miss the push to the first jump!
Or I'd have to accelerate to get ahead of her so she could read my deceleration, but then she would decelerate before the obstacle and miss it altogether. Everyone says that when running a fast dog, timing is critical, but I'm starting to feel like timing is impossible.
I'm feeling like I'll never get it right! I've been wanting a third dog, but really, I can't even handle the ones I have!
OMG, I really feel for you. I have the same problem with Miley. Im never going to get it. Last weekend when I ran her in that jumpers run, it went horrible.Once again I was ready to quit. I dont even think I will run AKC anymore. I just cant get it. At least I can Q in some things with USDAA. But then a day or 2 later, I start thinking of more things to try that may help. LOL I know motion handling is really in but I do think that using verbals can really help. I wasnt using much verbals but Stuart changed my mind about that. Miley really turned tight when she got the verbal soon enough. SO I will be adding more verbals. When I was at LCDA this guy and I were talking. I told him I hant qed in AKC jumpers in 2 years. He told me he hadnt qed in standard in 2 years. We started laughing. And then I said, "and I got a new dog when I cant even run this one". He laughed and said "Me too!" LOL He was ring crew for my Pairs run which was awesome. He yelled across the ring and said, "I thought you couldnt run that dog". I laughed and said, we can only run half a course. Which is probably true. LOL So just know you arent a lone. I know that isnt helpful but it will get better.
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