Another Agility Weekend

We went to another venue for agility last weekend.  Only one run each for both dogs.  No videos this time which is a shame because Max's standard run was one where (almost) everything came together - my handling,  his fast efficient lines, and he kept his contacts (although he is starting to jump so back to stride regulators in practice).  He did have a problem with the weaves again this weekend so that tells me we haven't trained them enough,  We have been doing a lot of handling practice involving jumps and turns so  it's obviously time for some balance.

I knew I was in trouble with Rylie when he started to vibrate as soon as we entered the building.  I spent a fair bit of time before his run playing focus and "still" games as opposed to the revving up I do with Max. I promised my trainer I'd make him hold his contacts and he did so that was the good.  That took all of his brainpower though because the rest of the run wasn't pretty.  The good - his contacts, he read my decel cue and didn't go flying over the table but stopped and downed.  The ugly - during the rest of the run we weren't connected at all - he thought to look for me when he wasn't sure what to do.  He did come back when I called when he started heading in the wrong direction though but since it was a starters course he was pretty accurate.  Ugly as it was we only had five faults which I'll take the blame for because I didn't verbally cue the turn to the chute.  He obviously needs body cues AND verbal cues when he is that high.

I learned that there is no point in taking Rylie to a trial where he only gets to run once because it takes one run for him to find his brain.  He's a ton of fun to run anyway - it's like trying to stay ahead of a speeding bullet.  Neil heard a comment about his speed and the commenter said "most Cavaliers are pokey".  I'm starting to get really offended by those comments because the Cavaliers I know most certainly aren't (and Max ran first and he wasn't - he doesn't look quite as fast because he runs in a straight line instead of doing three times the distance necessary lol).  The best way to stop them is to continue to show them I guess ;-).