Thursday, June 24, 2010

Wish my luck on the weather, LOL!

WHAT HAVE I DONE? LOL, I decided that I would sign up for some trials while we were still doing classes (there will be up to a three month break before the next sessions start), and try to just get myself and Breeze more used to trialing before we have to take time off classes and after that we can work on what training holes I am sure we will find as we are trialing. Of course we will add the new found holes in our training to the ones I am pretty well aware of already, LOL. I am sure we will have a hefty training list by the time we finish the trials we signed up for......

So all that sounded like a marvelous plan when I signed up but.....we live in Southern CA, and in my area anyway, in July the temps are usually well over 100. I am a melter....I melt in the heat, so as soon as I sent off the registrations I thought, YIKES!!! I just might die if we get a heat wave in July, and you know that is not that unlikely..... I am a worry wart, so I will stress on the temperature until the trial dates get here, although that won't change anything! If you all read about a trial where they found a competitor in a little melted puddle in Southern CA and they are wondering who that could have been.... you all can let them know it could be me!

SO.... I may be lucking out this first weekend-I am trialing at Woodley Park in Van Nuys, this is the forecast for Saturday as of right now....

Saturday: Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.


As far as our training, Cricket did FANTASTIC in our last stretching, and strengthening class. We did some recalls in an open field and we were supposed to have the dogs run between two people. Just so happens that my partner was the girl that taught the recall class I did with Cricket. Well, in the recall class Cindy had tried to lure Cricket away from coming to me by showing her food, and Cricket learned that reward was way more likely if she stayed with me. So not sure if that is why when we did recalls she would not leave me. When we really lured and got her to run towards Cindy ( a really slow run..) when she almost got to her she would WHIP around and run to me at warp speed, as fast as her little legs would go.., she was so happy to come to me. LOL, it sure made me feel good and built up my ego.....MY PUPPY LOVES ME! WHO KNEW?

Breeze is doing SO much better at the weaves, but during class she was supposed to catch the weaves after a long stretch and a tunnel....so she was going so fast and it took several tries for her to figure out how to check her speed. I have been working weave entries a lot and she catches them from all angles, but we have not put in tons of speed yet... so we are working on it. Well, the rest of the night she was supposed to come out that tunnel and do a sharp turn into a serpentine of three jumps. Breeze was sure she was catching those weaves again, she would pop out of the tunnel and race for the weaves, she knew she was right, and because I have done so much weave work lately she has been heavily rewarded for the weaves-she thinks those are pretty cool, so hopefully her next trial will not have a really fast entry into the weaves, or some sort of trap where I have to pull her off where she thinks the weaves belong in the course, we may be in trouble. ;-).

Lizzie, poor Lizzie, she has went back to taking a jump and whirling in front of me-one of us is going to be killed when I trip over her one day. I think I just need to work some baby dog sequences with her where I just encourage her to drive ahead. She does gorgeous treadles, some really difficult sequences, and gets huge lateral distance from the weaves, she can do amazing things, but give her a straight line and it falls apart very quickly. Poor Lizzie, I just love her, but, she is a lot of dog! She is fond of pointing out my holes in my training skills!!!

6 comments:

Sara said...

Oh know what you mean about the weather. I just got a trial confirmation and saw I signed us up for 4 runs on one day in August. What was I thinking? LOL.

How interesting, and what a learning experience to train 3 dogs that are so different. You really have to think on your toes!

Chris and Ricky said...

We know what you mean about the weather too - it's not 100 here but this weekend is supposed to be 90 and humid and while our trial is inside, the building has very poor circulation and not much a/c so I think I am going to melt too! If it's too bad, we'll go home!

Yay for Cricket's awesome recall to you! Yay for Breeze's love of the weaves (you reminded us that we should start to try to practice speed into entries) and poor Liz but I know she's gonna get the easy stuff since she's a star with the hard stuff!

Good luck this weekend!!

Haven't forgotten about the video for you - will try to ask Jenn this weekend!

Diana said...

Im glad the temps will be in the 80's instead of 100 for your trial. I was thinking of entering a trial here in July but its in the evening. I keep thinking how miserrible it is outside so I havnt sent it in yet.

Sounds like everyone is doing great. I dont know how you handle 3 dogs. Diana

Jules said...

Good luck!! I hope you don't melt! :-D

Morganne said...

Hoping you have good weather! Collecting for weavepole entries was difficult for Summit too. It took him awhile and then he would do it in training but not competition. I started to verbally collect him in competition for a little while and he eventually got it.

Lizzie sounds like a lot of dog - FUN!

Natasha said...

I admire you for living in southern CA, I couldn't, lol! I think you're doing a great job with all of your BC's, keep up the great work!