Deanna's class, Lizzie gets a gold star for her performance

Last night was Deanna's class and no video because it is a night class and so video just doesn't work! LIZZIE DID THE ENTIRE CLASS, and ACTUALLY looked like a dog that might actually be doing agility, not just a bad imposter. YIPPIE!!! So one thing is that Lizzie is not a dog that you get all riled up and in some wild drive before you go out, she does that on her own. She did so good in her start line stays, who would think a dog that looks like she has so little impulse control does her best work with the contacts and start line stays??? She does great in control work, it is just when she feels she is off on her own and floating out that she loses it. A girl who is in the class and has always been giving me a hard time for not trialing with Liz and has never seemed to understand why I have any trouble with her has watched her the last two weeks and came up to me and said, "WOW, I had thought I have seen high drive, wild dogs, and wild border collies, but I have never seen any dog like Lizzie", hahahahahahhahahahah, OMG, ya know if you did not experience the Liz, no one could believe the Liz. I always try to remember when we run it is not gorgeous, but there are not many that could have gotten as far as we have, so when I get discouraged....I do know I have worked fifty times harder and more with Liz then I have with Breeze, or Chloe and yet....you would not be able to tell by looking. So Liz and Breeze are opposite.

Breeze had trouble in this course with the weave entries-esp 10 on the light and dark circles. If I tap the break a little then she whirls around and starts yelling at me, if I run full fource then she blazes past the first pole and catches the poles about the second or third opening. Now Breeze is having difficulty because she stops about the third to fourth pole and looks back to see if she is right, whoops....if I say YES too loud or animated she gets all hyper and just loses it all and the weaves are history, if I say YES in a very soft tone at just the right time I can get some beautiful weaves, so we are going to have to work on that. Liz how ever had gorgeous weaves and just would occassionally pop out between pole 11 and 12.

Then in the light circles the start of the course, boy that is where there was a huge difference in the dogs. It was hard running both one right after another, first there is a lot of running....YIKES then Breeze will not hold her stay for a very long lead out and if I can get her too she would not read the number 2 double jump, she would sail around it, and if I stayed to make sure she saw that, then I was way further back, so I had to do a rear cross before 4, where with Liz I could move way further out and had no trouble getting a front cross between 3 and 4, which was just much nicer feeling. Then when we did the dark circles in the 4-5-6 section, Breeze has a fantastic tunnel send, so I could easily do a front cross between 5 and 6, then push out a little to get the weave line after 6 and it was a slick little bit of course for Breeze. Liz who coming off the teeter (WE SUBSTITUTED THE TEETER FOR THE AFRAME) gets all weird and doesnt want to drive out too far ahead,.....her I had to just stay with her on my left side out of the tunnel and do a rear cross before six, and still push her out a lot so she caught the right side of the poles for the entry.

I also figured out last night that I practice all sorts of weave entries but not with all the movement and forces of a real course like this, so we had a lot more trouble with entries then I would have thought considering we have worked with them so much lately.

That dark circle 11 to 12 amazed me because I was able to get there and do a backy uppy move and I thought that would work so well if I could get there, but I did not think I could especially with Liz because she was running fast last night....and Liz is usually not really good to put it mildly about decelerations, but we nailed that each time with both dogs, YES!!! Nothing like the feeling of actually being able to get somewhere where you did not think you could get to.

Anyway, all in all I learned a lot in class, and it was super hard running both dogs, but I do think that helped me really see the differences and figure some things out about both dogs.

I was so proud that Lizzie ran both of these courses TWICE, so a total of four courses and did not run off once. I do think I am going to switch to Lizzie sitting at the start in her stay, when she is in a down she starts sniffing, sniff, sniff, sniff, and then her little brain follows the sniff and it is a lot scarier watching her because I can see her disconnecting, so not sure that is always true, but I sure noticed it the past week, so might work with a sit and see how that goes.