The second half of April kind of sneaked up on me. Freya and I were not entered in any rally obedience trials this month, but we did not get in as much good training time as I had hoped to. We didn’t totally waste the first half of the month, but we still have a lot to work on.
Yesterday’s rally class had its ups and downs. I’m still not able to get a full 6 feet to the right of the jump if I want to be sure that Freya will go over it, and not around it. The strategy remained the same as last week: lower jump height and handler closer to the jump on the run-by. I have ruled out injury or discomfort as Freya’s reason for sometimes refusing the jump. It’s more likely that she is being lazy or smart or both, and is taking the path of least resistance. Unfortunately, not acceptable for this particular sport!
EDITED TO ADD: Here is Saturday’s video. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is of our first run and there is no video of the second run. The jump was much better on the second run.
As always, thanks to Allan Ross for allowing me to use our class videos here. You can see other Freya videos, plus videos of our classmates and some of Allan’s other trainees at his YouTube channel.
One thing I neglected yesterday was to do at least one course run-through on leash. I need to get in some good leash handling practice since four of our trials in May will be APDT Level 1 and two will be AKC Novice, all on leash. Freya already has the APDT Level 1 title, but we are working on a Level 1 championship and ARCH points (you’ll remember our one lonely point). This will be our first attempt at an AKC title, and my first time back in an AKC ring in about 15 years.
We’re entered in only one APDT Level 2 run in the May 2 trial. The jump and the offset figure 8 will be my big concerns. Our performance will help me make the decision on which levels to enter at Racine in June, as well as whether to enter in UKC Level 3 at the end of May. The timing of this trial is good, since I’ll still be able to make the pre-entry deadlines for the other trials even if I wait to see how we do at this one.
(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 18 of 30)