We are recovering from a great weekend of NADAC trialing... PAC (Palomar Agility Club) just had their Deja Vu games trial, where we run the same course twice. Tesla was entered in Intro in EVERYTHING, including her first trialing experience with weaves. I've been hesitant to send her out to do weaves in a trial... it is one of the hardest obstacles for a dog to wrap their heads around, and trust me, my girl is no different. She nails the weaves at home, but runs past them in class the first time, but once she figures out what they are, she "gets" it, again... I was expecting the same thing at the trial. And what's great about the Deja Vu format, when she messed up the first run, she nailed the second run because she had just seen it. It was a great way to reinforce the weaves in a trial setting. Here is her second Intro weaver's run... don't blink, it goes fast!
She had a great weekend... we earned a bunch of titles! She earned her Intro Weavers and Touch n Go titles, as well as Outstanding Intro Barrelers, Gaters, and Tunnelers titles! She really has come a long way, but as our EGC runs prove, we have a LONG way to go (quite humbling, no matter how "successful" our weekend seemed).
We'll continue to work on finding entrances and independent weaves, but I was very proud of my girl... it's tough to do weaves in the first place, so to have her do them well in a crazy fast trial environment was great!
We are progressing quite well... she is starting to feel "pressure", and we're working on verbal commands. I'm constantly working on timing and speed (for myself, not her!). We'll get there eventually... just enjoying the wild ride now!
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Dayle
