Twitch and I went to one day of WAG’s agility trial on the 1st of November. It was CPE and we entered four runs. The location was the Corvallis Fairgrounds which they made a big deal about saying the footing was better. I chose to do one day to see for myself. I would say that it was not better. There were still lots of rocks and very loose clumps of dirt and gravel.
Twitch didn’t run that well there so I don’t think we will go back. He was slow and distracted and maybe because he kept landing on rocks. We did manage 3 Q’s out of four but they were slow and not pretty. I gave up on Standard after a couple icky spots and then he went around the teeter. Sigh.
He was a little weird in class this past week in the first run but his second and third were better.
League this week we did ok. An off course in Standard but our Almost FAST class went very well. We were subbing for Crystal this week.
We went back to the barn today to work on contacts and weave poles. I think we might be getting more clarification of what “spot” means. He has been either not stopping or creeping or leaping in trials lately.
We ran the dog walk today and he stopped near the top of the down ramp when I said spot and I was 15 feet off the side. I said it again and he moved two feet and stopped again. So I waited to see if he would move into position but he didn’t. Just stood there. For over a minute. Then I started trying to figure out how to fix it. So we went back to close work where he was a foot from the end, spot, cookie. Then two feet up the ramp, spot and cookie. Switched sides, repeat. Then later in our practice I repeated the dog walk with me 15 feet off the side and he moved into position! Yay! So hopefully this is going to help.
We do USDAA with RAT (Rainier Agility Team) next weekend in Elma, WA and I would really like him to get his contacts. We do Steeplechase for the first time and I am excited about that! Too bad it’s at the end of the first day. It will be our first time at that location and our first time staying in a hotel. I am truly hopeful that the hotel is quiet and Twitch settles down well. Fingers crossed!