Well the princess (Hoax of course) is twenty two months old now and is just feeling like we may be getting ring ready. I forgot when training a dog that it is really two steps forwards, one step backwards.
I am fairly pleased with her jumping and turns. I was quite careful with Hoax to train both from pretty early. I did lots of straight lines into tunnels etc and seperatly did wing wraps and fans. I have now brought them together and am pretty happy with it all.
Her weaves are coming on now and I think she is going to have a lovely, low, single stride action through them. Contacts are ok- not great but ok. I guess contacts are always a work in progress.
I WISH I was a more confident person. Is it just me who analysys every aspect of my dogs working abilities? Straight lines: "that didn't feel fast enough, why was there an extra stride instead of a bounce". Then I go away and work on bounce jumping which she does fine. Turns: "Was that tight enough, could I make it tighter, was there enough speed out of the turn, if I asked for a tighter line would I loose the speed"... and on it goes!
All the above get thought through daily with Hoax. As they did with Boo when he began. I really have no idea yet if my princess will be competitive or not. One day we will work and feel quick and neat, the next feels like she is holding back with her speed and I worry that she won't be fast. I guess a lot of the worry comes from knowing that people will be watching her when she comes out. When Boo started I had been away from Agility for years, I hadn't really ever trained a dog on my own and no one really knew me.
Boo surpassed ANY expectations I had. I LOVE that dog for his sweetness at home and total biddibility and drive for Agility. I really never expected to do what we did, but here we are, and expectations are so much higher for Hoax. People are so sweet when they say that they can't wait to see her work, but that feels like such a lot of pressure!
Well Hoax and Boo are very different and I suspect their results in the ring will be different aswell. I must remember thats Boo was cr&p his first season and we just trained really. I will try not to put the pressure on myself and Hoax and just have fun out this year!
Wow, what a lot of waffling, I will probably decide to edit this post later on when I read it back and think... "Huh"?!?
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