Training

So, this is my second weekend off from shows. To be honest it has been a nice break (mainly cos I havent been doing too well, basically my clear round ratio has gone down too much) however I am very much looking forward to starting it all up again next weekend with Nottingham and then Hinckley the weekend after.

I havent done too much training, however when I have I have been concentrating on a few certain things which needed to be sorted.

1) Waits! Think I said on my last post, I seem to be throwing hundreds of classes away by releasing too early and not getting into position because I havent trained a wait good enough. Well I havent proofed in the ring well enough and have allowed bad behaviour. So of course, much to my dislike I have been training lots of waits in and away from agility. I say to my dislike because wait training bores me, its not fun and I cant really be bothered with it. I can pretty much say everything Rodney or myself are bad at is because training it bores me. eg weaves. Also what makes it worse is the fact Lee Windeatt has told me or I should say, has kept telling me to sort my wait out ever since Rodney came out, and I was like yeah yeah yeah, it will be fine bla bla bla. I hate the fact he is right, what seems like all of the time :(.

2) See-saws. As most people I speak to know. Rodney came out with a running see-saw, was good for the first few shows. Then he got more confident and started pushing it. Due to in my opinion training it wrong (using a hoop) I found it very hard to correct. So I think at the end of Jan I decided to start training both a stop and a run. Rodney got it straight away, however due to wanting 4 wins to go grade 7, I decided to run all in the ring. I have a feeling I can not keep getting away with this so have decided to be more consistent to hopefully prevent myself from confusing Rodney. I am just doing a stop now. This is annoying yes, cos means I am going to have to throw hundreds of classes which I do not want to do, to train in the ring. Which half the point of having running contacts is so you dont have to throw runs for training. O well.

3)Pulling into me "here". I didnt really realise until once again Lee pointed out to me. That where ever there is a part where I can not get in front and I have to do any form of pulling, I panic and do it wrong. So basically just practising more pulling (and rewarding into me) and doing more work form behind, making sure I am using the correct body language should resolve this.

4) Weave Entries. I know Rodney can pretty much do any weave entry now. However I still panic and go ahhhhh duno if he can do it. So have been trying to do more if and when I get chance, literally just for when I go in the ring, I go o yeah I can do this, we've done it loads before, this shouldnt be a problem. This is just a confidence issue on my part.

5)Running off on turns. I have got very very bad at this. I can not stand still to save my life. I think I run off all the time, because I am trying to speed Rods up. I MUST stop doing this, cos it is just getting me E'd and wasting me time.

Lee is very honest with me, which is hard to find. If I do something good, he will come tell and praise me. Equally if I do something bad, he will also tell me. I think he has told me my handling has been crap at atleast 3 shows this year so far :S You wouldnt believe how much that makes me want to do better and work harder. We did a bit of training together on Thursday, which once again highlighted a lot of things I need to work on. Not Rodney, just me.

I can not believe agility is this hard. I still remember being at Olympia watching the show jumping just over 6 years ago now and laughing at the agility, saying what a stupid thing people would waste their time doing. Now I can not get enough of it. I keep trying to ask myself why I like agility so much. I guess getting to do it with my dogs, if I wasnt doing agility guess I would be attempting some other form of dog sport. Obedience or something... wow that would be funny wouldnt it. "Heel Phoebe Heel."

So tomorrow I have lots of silly things like house work to do. Then Hopefully training with Lucy in the evening. I should also prob work on my tan ;) You know how it is.

xoxo