I present to you......

Lanie said:
A lot of Shelties are like that. One of my friends has a Sheltie that is amazing in class, but super sensitive in the ring. She can't correct anything in the ring or she runs for the gate and doesn't want to play anymore. Her other Sheltie is bullet-proof and crazy with no sense of self-preservation, lol. Switching back and forth between those 2 is really difficult.
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That's pretty much what I have. Spirit, who is super sensitive and would never in a million years get injured because she takes no chances. And then Skylar, who throws caution to the wind and just assumes everything will work out.
 
Judyg said:
Echo is a rockstar!! With an awesome handler.
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Thanks, but I'm pretty sure that if I had any other dog, I'd still be in Novice, lol. That dog put up with a lot from this green handler trying to figure it all out.
 
Cara Sandler said:
That's pretty much what I have. Spirit, who is super sensitive and would never in a million years get injured because she takes no chances. And then Skylar, who throws caution to the wind and just assumes everything will work out.
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So you have to switch back and forth at a trial between those 2 with completely different ring personalities? Every time I think about adding a second dog, I shudder, worrying about what that one will be like to handle. Echo loved agility from the first time she stepped into a class and I assumed that all Shelties were just like that. When I started trials, I saw how wrong I was.
 
Lanie said:
So you have to switch back and forth at a trial between those 2 with completely different ring personalities? Every time I think about adding a second dog, I shudder, worrying about what that one will be like to handle. Echo loved agility from the first time she stepped into a class and I assumed that all Shelties were just like that. When I started trials, I saw how wrong I was.
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Yup! And I have to handle the courses completely differently too (thankfully Skylar is still in Novice but she often runs the Masters level courses that Spirit does during her private lessons). With Spirit I use a lot of blind crosses because she likes to chase me (and she is a speedy little girl in class - I have to run like crazy to stay in front of her). In a trial, if I try to rear cross she tends to spin around and stop forward motion. With Skylar I use a lot of rear crosses because it's impossible to get in front of her and she doesn't mind rear crosses. She's just as happy to run like the wind and take whatever obstacle she sees in front of her.
 
Skylar sounds a lot like Echo. I do lots of rears with her and always have. Most of my blinds are out of tunnels or the weaves. I taught her right and left or I'd never be able to direct her when she's so far ahead of me. Mad admiration for you being able to switch between dogs that are so different.
 
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Lanie said:
Thanks, but I'm pretty sure that if I had any other dog, I'd still be in Novice, lol. That dog put up with a lot from this green handler trying to figure it all out.
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You were smart enough to find a better trainer. It took me a long time to figure out I needed to move on.
 
I started out doing all rear crosses with the brown dogs (Cran and Dix)- I was just always behind them and they just seemed to know where to go. I was always in the wrong place to do anything else really. When Jocu came along, he is of the chase mommy variety and early in his career, we had a working spot in a blind cross session at a seminar so I started doing those with him a lot and then added them with Dixie. We've gotten better with our front crosses in the last year but I still can screw them up. and I've recently discovered that the more fronts and blinds that I do, the worse our rears are getting. we really need to work on that more.
and then there's Destin...... little speed demon-- so for him, it's mostly rears and occasionally I can get to a spot for a blind or a front but he sometimes blows me off and goes where he wants- like a tunnel instead of anything else.:pop
so Dixie and Jocu are both in Master Jww so I have been trying to do more of the same handling with them. Destin and Cranberry are both in Open Jww now and there's nothing going on the same with them:rolleyes2:
I was really crazy when we started in agility and I have always run at least 2 dogs. I didn't know then what Cran's problem was or even that he had an actual problem. I did think that I was doing things that made him run around jumps and drop bars. I tried so many things- running really close or farther away laterally, farther ahead- nothing really worked there. and then Dixie was qualifying and moving up and I didn't know why they ran so differently. you just have to keep trying until you find what works.....:yes:
 
Lanie said:
Skylar sounds a lot like Echo. I do lots of rears with her and always have. Most of my blinds are out of tunnels or the weaves. I taught her right and left or I'd never be able to direct her when she's so far ahead of me. Mad admiration for you being able to switch between dogs that are so different.
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It's a lot of fun. Kind of like getting 2 courses for the price of one :-)
 
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