I couldn't remember when Gerhard and I were out at the barn whether Olga suggested a f/c after the double the 2nd time on the way to the last 2 jumps.  I tried it both ways.  The backing up at jump # 6 worked very well to get a tight turn.  I think I was going too far in to jump # 8 and making the turn back to the double harder.  It would have been a lot worse without the barn wall!  The walls are my friend ;).  We did have a slightly condensed version of the lesson as the barn is only about 65 feet wide.  It was especially challenging with the tire only about 10 ft from the wa

I actually found the turn from the double to be more difficult than I expected.  Going in to jump # 8 on the angle as Olga suggested seemed to work to get a nicer turn for both dogs.  I am having a hard time transitioning between my two dogs.  I have to remember to drive more with Xena and not to lead out so much.

Wendy

I struggled a little with the rear crosses in exercise 2.

I didn't have a cameraman until the very end of my practice so it is pretty hard to see.  I couldn't decide which lead out I preferred to the weave poles.

 She did well but a lot times she is still taking off for jumps in the wrong direction making the turns hard on her physically.  I'm not sure if I am just late or she is not cueing soon enough.

Wendy

Well we had a really fun trial weekend!  It feels so good to feel like we are making some progress as a team.  Just thought I would post a few of our runs.  We are not getting many Q's now that we are in masters.  We managed an Advanced Team and a Masters Snooker Q.  The first run was a real heartbreaker - we were clean right down until the last obstacle!  I can see from the video why she went into the tunnel but it was a real push to the jump so I'm not sure what I should have done differently.   I also posted this one for Jean as I thought she would appreciate my conversa

We had more problems than I expected with the sends.  To the tunnel was pretty easy but she lost her resolve at the table a few times. In the last 2 exercises, the guy who is filming me is sitting on the table with his dog so I really wasn't expecting her to drive to it.  I found there was so much stuff in the lesson I just did a few bits and pieces, knowing I probably wouldn't get a chance to set it up again.  It felt rushed and I would really like to revisit it sometime.

Phoenix did pretty well on this.  We were wide in a couple of spots.  My apologies the video is so long but already I edited out a lot of our mistakes and I thought I better not edit anymore.  She ran it really well the first time but after that had a hard time with the sharp right turn after #8. A couple of times she took the jump that should be a tire and also went to the left.  I found that in order to get a tight turn over the middle jump of the pinwheel, I had to be late on my directional as then she didn't slice the jump as much.

Phoenix did really well on this I think. I could see improvement in her serpentine and/or my timing.  I felt like I wasn't doing the lead out to the first set of poles quite right - like I was in her way.  She did well on the discrimination.

This is Phoenix doing Lesson 7.  As you can see, the serpentine is obviously not an automatic pattern for her but it definitely improved with repetition.

Thought you guys in California/Arizona might want to see what your missing!