It was a rainy morning, and I was concerned about Emmy slipping---which she did.  Since we occasionally trial in wet conditions, I decided to give her the opportunity to try it.  The exercises were very fun!

Kari

Again, this run/flow did not feel very good.  We are a very young team and every run is still a learning experience  :-)  One of the things I really watch out for on these coarses is the safety issue for Em.  She's young, fast and fearless with a very long stride, and I don't want her crashing an obstacle in her zeal to take it at a bad angle.  

Kari

Ok, now for the "ugly".  The standard runs did not feel good.  She does not have a reliable "left/right" in a trial which I know would help give her information.  The contacts---at the last trial she jumped over every one so it was a real improvement to have her assume the 2o2o position.  But I can see that she goes into handler focus and we get disoriented.  The way the obstacles were angled made the "flow" difficult.

Kari

We are ready to learn a "proper" aframe---one where Emmy drives to the bottom, is NOT handler dependent, and understands her 2o2o position.  Olga, these are our efforts from this morning, trying to follow what you suggested.  Her tugging at the bottom wasn't very inspired....At the end, we raised the aframe to competition height and did 3 as we would try to do in a trial, since we are leaving tomorrow for one (and poor Emmy must be so mixed up at this point).

Kari

Hi Olga--This morning I was able to get some video of Emmy's aframe performance.  I tried 3 different scenarios:  1)  2o2o with me  driving past the contact.  I thought I was "driving" but the video shows that I'm still just putsing along  :-(,   2) 2o2o with me trying to hang back (her 2o2o word is "stop").  This is more like what we've been getting at a trial and she gets frustrated and jumps off, and 3)  trying a running contact.  For this I used a bar over the apex to get her to jump it, and a hoop with her toy on the other side.  She has neve

Of coarse, I just posted elsewhere that she usually nails her contacts in training, and here she is sailing through her 2o2o  :-)   Looking forward to Olga doing a lesson re contacts!  Oh yes, we are still the queens of adaptation!

Kari

We've been out of commission for awhile due to "re-contruction" of our training area.  This is our first drill in the expanded space.  Thanks, Helen!

Kari

This was our novice standard run.  I used "box" for the first time and she just plunked that little rear down   ;-)   Didn't get her set up towards the tunnel--lesson learned.  It was another 1st/High in Class. 

Kari

Here is the novice version of the jumper's run posted by Helen and Caper.  I didn't use the claw, but certainly needed the "go on"!  Emmy took 1st/High in Class with this run.

Kari

Emmy does not know her 270's so we had to start small---the first time we tried it she just about took out the red jump.  I was momentarily stunned when she made the weave entrance.  :-)

Kari