k9kreationz
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First my thoughts of the venue overall.
The confirmation said I had to be there at 7am to check-in (since I didn't do it Saturday). So, I woke up a 5am (when no one should be up) and got my butt on the road and arrived at 6:50am. A whopping dozen people were there. After talking to another person my friend knew, I found out USDAA isn't as "strict" as AKC and well, no one was there, no one was ready, etc. I was upset and not. Upset since I woke up so early, not because that means I can come later next time. lol.
The people were overall very friendly and nice. The judge was really easy going and made it fun for us. Would I do USDAA again? Yes. Will I make it a main venue for myself? Probably not. If I do USDAA more often I'll probably take NADAC out, however, I really like NADAC, so I don't know. It's almost the same price, but USDAA trials are typically closer (unfortunately, that's one reason why I'm not doing so many NADAC ones anymore).
Now, my runs.
Here is my Gamblers run. No time and NQ anways.
First run of the day, we all know Koji doesn't have a ton of distance so I looked at this as a practice run (practice my contacts and weaves). It's just too bad that he blew the things I wanted to practice. LOL. I went in thinking I'd have a ton of points. I left with 19. His gamble didn't go through either. Oh well. I blame myself and I'll explain later (scroll all the way down to the last big paragraph). The first part was a jump to a tunnel about 15' away. Doable, but not how I ran it. If you read below, you'll see I understand my issues.
Here is my Standard run. 2nd place NQ (no one Q'd)
By now, I was worried about his dogwalk, but more worried about the table. I figured the table would take so long, he'd just whistle me off the course. Surprisingly, Koji got up, and downed with one command. Woohoo!!! And stayed down. I was so surprised. I wasn't sure if I'd Q with a DW fault, but I soon learned NO. lol. I guess you have to be clean, minus refusals. Check out his weaves though. Awesome!
Finally, here is his Jumpers run. 3rd and Q! Yay!
I said it once, I'll say it again. This was our big chance of Q'ing. And we ran great!!! I didn't want to do a lot of RC's but in the end, I did them. I was hoping for a lead-out pivot of sorts, but decided I'll work on his start line stay the way I intended too (slowly versus walking out 2 obstacles and hoping for the best). If you watch the video, I'm so angry at myself (and laughing too). There's a pinwheel at the end that had a 4th jump leading to a tunnel. Um, yeah. I had forgot the 4th jump was part of the course and had to call Koji off the tunnel to go get it. LOL.
BTW, had I not missed that jump, I would've gotten first and won by about 5 seconds. Koji can blame his handler for that huge error. lol
*Here's my explanation paragraph*
Overall a great day. Today, I learned some BIG lessons. I had that other trainer correct me and I have to remind myself to do a lot of things. When I run, a lot of times I run for speed, not necessarily accuracy or correct training. By that, I mean I keep moving to get his time down, versus doing things the way I should to do them correctly. And here's what I learned.
In Gamblers, I should've taken the tunnel to set him up for the Gamble....versus running all the way from the other side. By doing that, I could've slowed myself down and decelerated correctly and got the gamble (maybe, but more likely), versus doing what I always do. Stop on a dime. Sigh. I also realized I was running so far ahead of Koji it's also why he was blowing his contacts. Granted, he shouldn't, but then he hasn't learned to NOT jump over them when I'm FAR ahead of him (things to work on in class). I also realized that on his DW, I don't wait until he stops to release him, I wait until he hits the contact. Bad! Need to be consistent in class and out. Oh yeah, he popped out of his weaves because I was too far ahead of him. If you watch the STD run, you'll see he's great....and it's because of where I am. More to work on.
In Standard, I'd like to say that I fixed a lot of those issues. I even slowed and stopped to wait for him to stop, but he didn't, he jumped. And I don't want him to read off of me, so that lesson was to run into place (for the next obstacle) but wait for him to stop, before I release him.
Lastly, in Jumpers. I wanted to lead out far. But I realized, he's not ready for it. Why push it. I'm not baby'ing him to get a Q (like shaping an entry to the weaves), but I am doing only what he's capable of....so far....as I train. So, I walked out to the first jump, released him, and ran like crazy! I also didn't want to RC's because I know it slows him down. You can see him slow down. But, after walking it and walking it, I realized I didn't have the distance needed to get a FC in where I wanted. So, I did a RC, but practiced the distance where I thought I'd need it (in the pinwheels).
So, this trial, I see a lot of things I'm doing wrong. Jeez. But overall, I see why I made the errors I did. And now I just have to remember them when I trial in a few weeks. lol. Actually, I just have to remember to run like I do in class because the clock doesn't matter. Honestly placement doesn't matter, but I think I stress out on things like Gamblers where I have a set time.
Thanks for reading all this, assuming you made it through. I just had such a big light bulb moment that I was proud of myself.
The confirmation said I had to be there at 7am to check-in (since I didn't do it Saturday). So, I woke up a 5am (when no one should be up) and got my butt on the road and arrived at 6:50am. A whopping dozen people were there. After talking to another person my friend knew, I found out USDAA isn't as "strict" as AKC and well, no one was there, no one was ready, etc. I was upset and not. Upset since I woke up so early, not because that means I can come later next time. lol.
The people were overall very friendly and nice. The judge was really easy going and made it fun for us. Would I do USDAA again? Yes. Will I make it a main venue for myself? Probably not. If I do USDAA more often I'll probably take NADAC out, however, I really like NADAC, so I don't know. It's almost the same price, but USDAA trials are typically closer (unfortunately, that's one reason why I'm not doing so many NADAC ones anymore).
Now, my runs.
Here is my Gamblers run. No time and NQ anways.
First run of the day, we all know Koji doesn't have a ton of distance so I looked at this as a practice run (practice my contacts and weaves). It's just too bad that he blew the things I wanted to practice. LOL. I went in thinking I'd have a ton of points. I left with 19. His gamble didn't go through either. Oh well. I blame myself and I'll explain later (scroll all the way down to the last big paragraph). The first part was a jump to a tunnel about 15' away. Doable, but not how I ran it. If you read below, you'll see I understand my issues.
Here is my Standard run. 2nd place NQ (no one Q'd)
By now, I was worried about his dogwalk, but more worried about the table. I figured the table would take so long, he'd just whistle me off the course. Surprisingly, Koji got up, and downed with one command. Woohoo!!! And stayed down. I was so surprised. I wasn't sure if I'd Q with a DW fault, but I soon learned NO. lol. I guess you have to be clean, minus refusals. Check out his weaves though. Awesome!
Finally, here is his Jumpers run. 3rd and Q! Yay!
I said it once, I'll say it again. This was our big chance of Q'ing. And we ran great!!! I didn't want to do a lot of RC's but in the end, I did them. I was hoping for a lead-out pivot of sorts, but decided I'll work on his start line stay the way I intended too (slowly versus walking out 2 obstacles and hoping for the best). If you watch the video, I'm so angry at myself (and laughing too). There's a pinwheel at the end that had a 4th jump leading to a tunnel. Um, yeah. I had forgot the 4th jump was part of the course and had to call Koji off the tunnel to go get it. LOL.
BTW, had I not missed that jump, I would've gotten first and won by about 5 seconds. Koji can blame his handler for that huge error. lol*Here's my explanation paragraph*
Overall a great day. Today, I learned some BIG lessons. I had that other trainer correct me and I have to remind myself to do a lot of things. When I run, a lot of times I run for speed, not necessarily accuracy or correct training. By that, I mean I keep moving to get his time down, versus doing things the way I should to do them correctly. And here's what I learned.
In Gamblers, I should've taken the tunnel to set him up for the Gamble....versus running all the way from the other side. By doing that, I could've slowed myself down and decelerated correctly and got the gamble (maybe, but more likely), versus doing what I always do. Stop on a dime. Sigh. I also realized I was running so far ahead of Koji it's also why he was blowing his contacts. Granted, he shouldn't, but then he hasn't learned to NOT jump over them when I'm FAR ahead of him (things to work on in class). I also realized that on his DW, I don't wait until he stops to release him, I wait until he hits the contact. Bad! Need to be consistent in class and out. Oh yeah, he popped out of his weaves because I was too far ahead of him. If you watch the STD run, you'll see he's great....and it's because of where I am. More to work on.
In Standard, I'd like to say that I fixed a lot of those issues. I even slowed and stopped to wait for him to stop, but he didn't, he jumped. And I don't want him to read off of me, so that lesson was to run into place (for the next obstacle) but wait for him to stop, before I release him.
Lastly, in Jumpers. I wanted to lead out far. But I realized, he's not ready for it. Why push it. I'm not baby'ing him to get a Q (like shaping an entry to the weaves), but I am doing only what he's capable of....so far....as I train. So, I walked out to the first jump, released him, and ran like crazy! I also didn't want to RC's because I know it slows him down. You can see him slow down. But, after walking it and walking it, I realized I didn't have the distance needed to get a FC in where I wanted. So, I did a RC, but practiced the distance where I thought I'd need it (in the pinwheels).
So, this trial, I see a lot of things I'm doing wrong. Jeez. But overall, I see why I made the errors I did. And now I just have to remember them when I trial in a few weeks. lol. Actually, I just have to remember to run like I do in class because the clock doesn't matter. Honestly placement doesn't matter, but I think I stress out on things like Gamblers where I have a set time.
Thanks for reading all this, assuming you made it through. I just had such a big light bulb moment that I was proud of myself.
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