First and Second Day of Regionals Prep!

So, I totally suck at updating my blog. 

First Day of Regionals Prep Class!

So my first class of Regionals prep was on March 7th. Shyloh did pretty good! I'm so not used to running harder courses, so it's something to get used to haha!

<--- So this was the first course we did. When we walked it... my face was ":o" the whole time. I'm not SO used to this at all. I was okay with MOST of it, but I was definitely unsure of the dogwalk entry. Which is funny cause this dog walk entry is NOTHING compared to the of the course below. I got to practice with my lead outs from 1-3 and a blind cross from 6-7. I wasn't TOO concerned with the entry to jump #9. She did SO well. All I had to do was flick my hand and say walk it and she ran right to the dog walk very nicely. After that, the course was pretty simple. It went nicely. First run was a a distracted run but clean, and second run was clean and pretty speedy for Shyloh! :D

This course was a BIT more difficult in my eyes when I walked it. 1-4 was really nice!, but when I saw 5 I was like "how the eff do I handle this?" at first, and then we talked about it and I figured it out a bit. It's so difficult walking a course with 2 sides of your dog in mind. It's either Shyloh walks, or RUNS. So, I mostly have to walk planning either side of her. But, no it was great. 4-6 was a bit tricky, considering that wrong tunnel end is very visible to the dog. THEN, you have that NASTY dog walk entry. Shyloh got the wrong tunnel end first try and then went into distraction mode and then quickly got back into it and ran the rest clean :) Her second run at it was pretty speedy and only had one tunnel refusal at tunnel number 4. :) She did wonderful! Good GIRL!

Video to that first day of class is here ^^^^^

Second day of class!

Once again, Shyloh did amazing. But by amazing... I don't just mean AMAZING... I mean... AH-MAZE-ING. I have not seen her that happy, confident, OR speedy in a trial environment before. Absolutely AMAZING. I was even asked what I fed my dog before class xD. This was also the class that made me decide for surely that I'm going to do 2o2o contacts with Shyloh. I do notice that since she is faster, she has been missing contacts consistently. It's because of her larger stride, where-as before she walked... 

ANYWAYS! Here are the two courses we did this class:

So, to the left is the courses we did this class. We did the course in the white bubbles first. A LOT of things made me go ":o" in this course. Well, not a LOT... but a few. Mostly it was the tunnel and a-frame entrances being SO close. Especially how there was 2 entrances on the one side of the a-frame. Keep in mind, I'm not used to the courses of this level and I've never had much of a change to teach tunnel vs contact discrimination before. I planned on doing it once the snow melted. Hell, I even was telling Savanna in the car before this class that that's the ONE thing I haven't had much of a chance to do and want to this spring. And what do you know... we walk into the class to see that xD. Christina read my mind before class xD haha. Thats pretty funny. 

Anyhow, I thought 1-2 would be alright... I mean it's not TOO difficult to clearly point out the tunnel. That went over great. In the first run it was 1-5 really nicely. Then when I went to send her into the tunnel (6), she ran up the aframe... OOPS! So i sent her back down and intoo the tunnel. Then, I was too far ahead for 7 and she took the tunnel again and then went onto 7 right after. 8-9 was a threadle, and I wasn't toooo concerned, but Shyloh was a bit distracted and turned really wide, no big deal. 9-15 was nice. Then we needed some lateral distance on the teeter, so that we could get ahed while sending dogs into 16.... NOWWWW THE HARD PART.... 16-17... Oh my goodness. Walking this I thought how the hell? But when I ran it, it wasn't all that bad. :) Then for the second time doing that same course, Shyloh ran it all ALMOST entirely clean. On tunnel 17, Shyloh hesitated for about 5 or so seconds in front of the tunnel and put a paw onto the a-frame. ONLY a paw, SO close to being clean! Good job though :)

For the second course, labeled in the red bubbles... I was a little less nervous. The course presented itself as pretty easy compared to the first one. There were a few parts that were a little more difficult, but that's no big deal. Shyloh knocked a bar on both runs, sadly. But that's alright! In the first run, the weaves were messed up first try and a bar was knocked. Then once we got to jump 11, she got distracted and ran off to take a tunnel right before it. Once I got her back, the rest of the run was nice! In our second try, she ran the COURSE clean but missed the a-frame contact and knocked the bar before the a-frame :D! I think she did VERY well. 

Video for the second day of class ^^^

I'm learning so much from these classes and am enjoying it SO much! I can't wait for next week and to avoid a REALLY long blog post, I will remember to post every week after class. If I don't, call me out on it xD!