Things to Work on for the Team

The past few posts have been about successful weekends with Dally and LaMesa, which are always great to type and read later. :-) This post I wanted to put a few things to "paper" in order to have accountability for our training. No run is ever perfect, whether in class or at trials. There's always something we need to work on:

Dally:
Dally and I have really started to click as a team lately, which has been great. I wish I could tell you how it happened, but I can't because I don't know how it happened--it just did. Now is the time to start nit-picking on our teamwork and our runs. We've been getting better about shortening the amount of yardage Dally has to run.

We lose time during our runs with Dally's slow weaves and her slow moving on the teeter. Her slow climb up the teeter kills me some times--it's like she know exactly where the tipping point is, so she just saunters up to the mid-point and waits for the teeter to tip. I don't think it's a matter of her being afraid of the teeter, because she likes the teeter. I just can't figure it out.

Her weaves are another concern. In class she can have some of the prettiest weaves, hopping between the poles as a fast weaver should. But then we go to a trial and she tries to shuffle as quickly as possible through the poles, which means a slower weave. I've tried many different things--clapping my hands through the weaves; saying "Go, go, go" as she goes through them...anything. If anyone has any tips of what I can do during a trial for her weaves, I'd be willing to hear them.

LaMesa:
Our teamwork just needs time--Mesa will turn two in a couple of weeks, so she's still very young and still very green at trials. She keeps her focus on me pretty well at trials so far, which is great. I just wish I could harness all her energy before her run (she barks so much and gets herself so worked up waiting to run), because she gets tired quickly.

For Mesa, I have to remember to hold my signals for her and tell her sooner. She's so much faster than Dally that I have to think faster, as well as run faster, than I do normally with Dally. I'm told this will come in time with us, so I have to keep the patience and praise the little things that we do well.

If only I could take some of her speed in the weaves and teeter (she has gorgeous weaves and a great teeter) to Dally, it'd be perfect!!

What things do you feel you need to work on with your partner? And any tips you have for me would be great.