AKC NOVICE JWW Pasadena, CA 1rst and a Q

Well Breeze and I ran this jumpers course today at the trial in Pasadena. The weather was really nice and cool all morning and then got hot in time for our run. Breeze did awesome and I did not see any signs of stress at the start line like I saw last week. She was a rock at the start line. I got out on the course and thought I had just missed the GO sound. I was sort of confused, I put Breeze in a stay, took off the leash and then looked at the judge and he was just looking toward the exit so I was not sure if the GO had been sounded or not, in the meantime I had left Breeze in a stay, so I just kept staring at the judge who was not hurrying me on, so I assumed maybe they had not said GO??? What a dufus, but eventually they sounded the GO, which means I had left Breeze sitting there in a stay all that time for nothing, BAD HANDLER! That made me so much more proud she held her stay so well, she had extra time to hold it. Going out of the tunnel I knew she would have picked up speed and I knew I would still be lateral to her path so there was no way to show a little deceleration so I had to hope for the best for the entrance to the weaves.....and she just nailed the entrance, and completed the weaves with no problem. YIPPIE BREEZE. After Breeze got out of the second tunnel and was between 10 and 11, Breeze went around jump 11 and then slowed when I brought her back for the jump so the rear cross there was VERY choppy and I wish I could have handled that differently....but then we did the last rear cross without incident, so we ended up with a first and a qualifying score.

I have been playing a lot of games with Breeze to work on the start line and that seems to be working well. I put her in a stay and run away from her, put her in a stay and play with the toy and then when I say BREAK we break into a wild game, and I have been doing a lot of just plain treating for staying in a down until I give a release without even saying stay.