Agility Maven

Gimme was particularly good in agility class last night (with one little exception).  Her contacts were all flawless and her weaves were pretty good given the challenging entries.

She started the first run distracted, held her sit at the start, but when released did zoomies instead of the course.  I got her back and she worked, but was still distracted.  I thought she needed to pee, especially since I knew she hadn't even though she had the opportunity.  Once she peed she did better, but still not as good as I know she is capable of.  Between her times in the arena, she also pooped - so that explains a lot.  The second time in she was very good... except for doing the start line release zoomie.   She's never really been one to have the zoomies, so I'm going to guess the first time was cuz she needed to relieve herself and then she thought it was fun and decided to try it again.  That is something I'll certainly have to be prepared for next time (in two weeks) so it doesn't become a habit. 

The second time in, she was amazingly good.  So much so that Blynn was really able to focus on my handling, which has become awful in the years since I ran with Michael.  Frances was always so forgiving and would do anything I asked, regardless of whether I gave her adequate information in time.  Michael was faster and not nearly so forgiving or accomodating.  Gimme makes Michael look much easier than I thought he was at the time.

Interestingly she is very sensitive to encroachment on her space.  So much so that when she was focused like she was last night, Blynn was able to really see that the scooting outside a curve of jumps isn't about inconvenience on Gimme's part.  Actually it is subtle handling pressure on my part that pushes her off the line.  That subtle handling pressure was just a slight turn of the shoulders toward her line.  Technically that should push them, but I always needed much more shoulder turn to push on my other dogs' line.

When she is not focused, I feel like I have to turn more toward her to keep an eye on what she is doing and give her more direction... but doing so is actually causing some of the difficulty we experience.  Gimme really intuitively understands the APHS rules and is going to make me much more accurate in applying them.  She really will not let me fudge them.

I know I've said how much she wants to drive the train... well, she insists that if I ever want to have my hands on the controls and sit in the conductor's seat, then I have some improving to do!