Mindsets, pre-routines and Sheltie planning

Well, another Agility weekend gone and drawing closer and closer to the end of the year.  Once again I realised how important it is to have your mind in the game before you enter the ring.  On Saturday we had Best of the Best, I was very happy with Chaos's Contact round, for the first time I handled like I would like to, really attacking the course, this caused him to bring down two bars, but I will work through that.  I have exactly eight shows left before the first AWC trial to sort that out...

Here is the video:



I also did some quick releases on my contacts... which cost me dearly, as he released himself off the dogwalk today and I had to put him back.  But that just proves that I still need to work on that too.

Before going in for my non-contact round (over a VERY tight course), a friend started chatting to me about this and that.  The next moment I saw the dog that was running right before me was in the ring... rush rush rush.  I was so flustered that I ran my round that I forgot from which side to take number 3 and dq'd myself.  A star and a noddy badge for me.  I failed my poor dog.  I really do need to keep my mind in the game for his sake.  Today I made sure that I did that and it paid off... well to an extent.

As I have already mentioned the Chaos Spazzie released himself off the contact and I had to put him back, thus eliminating himself.  The Dog Jumping, firstly I don't want to critisize the course design, but I don't like courses where you have to call off your dog every five seconds.  In the first sequence of 10 obstacles there were SIX sledgehammers where you had to scream at your dog to call them off.  This could have been solved by opening the course up, as all the distances were 5m.  Chaos's round was as nice as it could be, with one refusal where I had to call him off a tunnel and by the time he recovered he had already passed the next jump.  I uhmed and ahhed about putting this video on, but in the end it was not a bad round, so here it is.:


In the non-contact Chaos had a really brilliant round, except for one moment where I kind of lost him.  But he recovered nicely and sometimes that is just as important in this game... more about that in another post.  That little bubble cost him second place and pushed him in to third behind his brother from another litter, Blitz, but well done to Julie.  The one round I wish I had taped was the winner, Carmen and Seis had the most perfect round, beating everyone else by at least 5 seconds.  It was spectacular... so it would have been really nice if I had actually recorded the round as Carmen asked... so sorry!  Anyhow here is Chaos's round:



Meanwhile the day of Jonas's arrival draws closer and closer.  Despite the stress of the paperwork and the import I am beyond excited... and of course nervous.  Not only am I starting training with a new puppy, but a new breed in a new height class.  This can be very stressful.  I am spending hours and hours reading up about the breed and agility training with Shelties, lets hope I do the boys justice, but one thing is for sure... Game on!