Ah, the joys of living in Canada! The forecast for today called for -29 degrees Celsius, so no use in risking it. Dress in many layers, keep your car full of gas, put in the little bottle that will prevent you gas line to freeze, bring your Winter Survival Kit in the car (candle, extra blanket, matches), put on your warmest coat and you can be sure nothing will happen.
And nothing did! : )
It was minus 7 degrees in my garage, but by the time I was at Tim Horton's a mere 300 metres away, it was -19. Yup, that cold.
Although Jasmine and I haven't been training or practicing very much lately, I was adamant that I participate at least in one "official" run in January. AARF is one of our favorite venues as everyone is so friendly and things are relaxed, which is my kind of competition. We're also getting more and more comfortable out there and I definitely don't was to lose that!
I was working yesterday, so obviously I hadn't registered Jasmine in any event. Today, the only run we could participate in was advance jumpers, so we "jumped" at the possibility!
At our last handling class, even I realised that my timing sucked. This is apparent again in this run. (groan).
Some observations
At the startline, Jasmine is usually happier if I don't carry her in. I have no idea why I did since for the past 3 trials, I've been keeping her on leash until I ask her to sit. Oh well. We were the last to run, but that's quite common for us.
During classes, our instructor usually tells me "call her while she's in the tunnel!". My "duh" moment was to wonder why, but today, I have the answer. Jasmine does sometime look for me at the exit, but most often than not, she doesn't. Consequently, it's not surprising she barrelled out, and kept on running straight ahead.
My usual routine
At this point, my usual routine is to blank out all my logical thinking, which of course, I did. I didn't handle the next sequence very well, so Jasmine ran around the second jump. My carefully planned threadle after jump, tunnel disappeared from my mind. My mind is still on the forgotten threadle when it's time for the front cross after the last tunnel, so my timing sucks. Jazz hesitates a bit at this. The rest of the course goes well, except for the last two jumps.
Running out of the ring for her reward
I realised last July, that Jasmine was leaving the ring, sometimes in the middle of a course, to go for her reward. Since then, I've made her finish her courses by calling her back in the ring. At the last trial in AARF, it was so obvious... She ignored her last two runs, went for the table where the bowl of treats were.
At our last handling class, Jasmine pulled her leaving the "ring" trick again. My instructor then suggested to "make" her tug as a reward instead. I did this at our second try, and it worked.
The result of this shows today as well. Jasmine doesn't leave the ring completely, but stops, comes back to me, and finishes the run. Not bad! Progress!!!!
Watching the video afterwards
A bit funny. As I'm watching the video now, the judge raises her hands so many times to note our faults, I feel as if she waving at me.....
I enjoyed reading this write-up :-)
ReplyDeleteShe really is doing a great job of sticking with you, no zoomies even on a really really really cold day. The end-of-the-run-running-out-of-the-ring thing, well, I can see it's a big temptation (for Lucy, too!) but you are taking steps to fix that (which is more than I can say for myself/Lucy!).
Remember when you asked me if there was a little of hound in Jasmine? Well, I think there is.
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