Remember: Dally's Not Perfect

Dally's pretty good about keeping me grounded. Just when I'm thinking we're doing so well and maybe things are going perfectly, she reminds me that I can't slack off when I run her.

After a QQ on Saturday at the Queen City Dog Training Club's AKC Trial this past weekend, I was feeling pretty confident about pushing her for more speed--surely we'll Q, right?? Going into the weekend we needed 91 points for AKC Nationals. After earning 33 on Saturday, I felt like we could get even closer on Sunday.

Note to self: Don't ever take anything for granted and always keep on your toes, no matter which dog you're running.

Here were our successful runs on Saturday:

Jumpers:



Standard:


(I have no clue what happened at the chute and the teeter--it's pretty bad when the judge looks at you and goes "Whew!" and shakes her head because your dog barely hit the teeter in the right spot.)

On Sunday, we had miscues at the weave poles in both Jumpers and Standard. In Jumpers she popped out after the tenth pole. I'm not sure what made her do so--Porter had done the same thing in the same spot, so maybe it was a Corgi thing?

Then in Jumpers we totally blew by the weaves--I was pushing so much for speed that when I sent her in the tunnel, I ran by the weaves and signaled "Weave!" but I didn't hold the signal. I assumed she'd take them. I should never assume with Dally.



I've learned my lesson. Going into this weekend (again at Queen City), I'm going to push for speed, but still hold my signals and make sure we're more accurate than fast. We need 58 points now, and it can be doable, if we're both on the same page.

We'll let you know how that goes next week.