Lessons in Losing

Let me start by saying that I had a fabulous time this weekend. I watched a lot of good friends have some spectacular runs, the courses and judges were great, and there were spectators and news coverage! Pals and Paws has come a long way since I joined the club many, many, many years ago. We’ve gone from holding trials in small, outdoor venues, often plagued with rain and mud, to trialing in a massive state of the art equestrian center. The surface was fantastic this weekend, the trial ran very smoothly with an abundance of helpers, and even though I worked my butt off as a chief course builder, I had a great many wonderful helpers to ease the burden. Special thanks to Keiko and Buster for being there to help so often and to Mike from Dog-On-It who is a total professional as well a great guy to work with.

We didn’t Q much this weekend. I could make excuses about getting up at 4:30 in the morning, and the time change, and being tired, etc. etc., but I don’t really think that had anything to do with it. We hadn’t trialed in over a month, and since then, Mr. Xan Man has gotten MUCH more confident. And faster. And pushier. He’s decided that he is going to RUN and take what is in front of him unless I tell him otherwise. The days of hanging back and handling conservatively to get through Novice courses are over. This was our first trial in Advanced so courses are getting tougher and I have to HANDLE my dog! I watch myself on the video sometimes and think, “why wasn’t I moving?!” Ha! He did have a couple of random baby dog moments, one in which he cut directly in front of me after the A-frame to take the tire that I never even considered, and again where he flipped away from me in a pinwheel. I really can’t figure out the logic behind those other than “baby dog moment,” but everywhere else was totally my fault. My fault for being too slow, too far behind, and too late in my commands. He has really stepped up the speed, which is awesome, so I have to step up the speed of my brain to match. I am also giving him another six months with the "baby dog" free pass, at which point he will be three and held accountable for any random goofiness! ;)

We started the weekend with Advanced Gamblers in which the gamble was a series of four lateral jumps, set at severe angles so that the dog was intended to slice them. An off course jump was set up directly where dogs were turning toward their handlers, so many just came in and took that jump. I managed to see the jumps as a straight line from the dog walk, and kept him out on a parallel line so he just ran straight through and never looked at the off course jump. We had the fastest time, but unfortunately I did a failed front cross and ran him around the A-frame, which was 3 pts, and cost us first place. It was still a nice run overall, even though I scolded myself for getting greedy and releasing him from his contacts too soon in an effort to win.

Advanced Standard was next and we had a great run going until he blasted past the weaves after a wide turn. In correcting him, I got too far behind and missed the front cross I had planned and sent him in the wrong end of the tunnel. He came out and ran toward the judge, while I stood there and laughed. The look on his face was priceless when he realized the judge was NOT me, and spun around to find me. Gotta love the baby dogs. I DO need to help him with more verbal cues to let him know where I am out of the tunnels, as he’s done similar things a couple times before in losing me coming out of a curved tunnel.

Grand Prix was a very tricky course, and we handled it really well except for a front cross he didn’t read correctly and so took an off course jump. We definitely need to work on those front crosses.

Advanced Pairs goes on my list of “Bonnie’s Biggest Blunders.” Step 1. Find your pairs partner. Step 2. Decide which half you are running, and which half your partner is running. Step 3. Walk the course. Step 4. Come to the line with the baton in your hand. Step 5. Run your course and hand off the baton to your partner. I had a critical failure in Steps 4 and 5 in which I COMPLETELY FORGOT THE BATON. After running my course, I go to hand off said baton, and see it laying on the ground. DOH! I apologized to my partner, and fortunately for us, she was VERY nice and wasn’t terribly mad. To assuage my guilt, they faulted on their half. She probably did that on purpose to make me feel better. Handler fail.

In addition to my brain fart, Xander got really pushy on his contacts in pairs and was not really stopping at all. He had perfect contacts in Standard, and then he was stopping just after the contacts in Grand Prix, and only slowing down in pairs. I marked those with a pause and an “uh oh” and I knew that my greed in gamblers had come back to haunt me. I kicked myself mentally for most of the evening. However, we regrouped from the disappointment of pairs, played some “target” games on the stairs, had a tug and trick session, and were happy again before snooker. I decided to go for broke and did the all three 7’s strategy and managed to make it work for a q and 1^st place. I guess I do love snooker. And since there were no contacts, we just got to have fun running and jumping.

Sunday morning came exceedingly early with the time change, and we were back for more. I concentrated our bonus gamblers run on doing the contacts and didn’t really focus on the gamble. He was pushy on his A-frame, but did pause until I released him. His first dog walk was another stop just past the contact, but when I turned him around and ran it the other direction, he stopped perfectly. I held it with a “goooooood boy!” and then released. I got confused when I heard the other ring’s buzzer go off, and I think I negated the gamble by hanging around too long. Oh well, at least we have the one we need for the title.

Advanced standard would have been a great run, with a beautifully executed rear cross into a ridiculously difficult weave entry, but he cut me off after the A-frame and took that tire. I was really happy with the rest of the run, except for another failed front cross. Again, work to do. His contacts were MUCH better though, so I was happy with that.

Advanced Jumpers came at the end of a very long weekend. Xander, to my amazement, was still high as a kite and loving the game. He was so fast and I was so slow that we had an off course. However, I layered an entire line of jumps and was excited about that. It was a fun NQ run.

So overall, we only walked away with two Q’s. However, I learned a lot about what works, what doesn’t, what areas we need to focus on in practice, and skills that I need to improve in my handling. Even though his contacts were pushy at times, he has never actually missed one (knock on wood)  and I think we were back on track by the last standard run. His jumping was flawless and we had zero knocked bars in all eight runs of the weekend. His start lines are rock solid. More importantly, he was fast, happy, and totally engaged in the game even after twelve hours of being there on Saturday, and another nine hours on Sunday. It was a long weekend.

I learned this weekend that although Q’s are awesome, I learn a lot more from the runs that go wrong. I look forward to the challenge of learning to run my Xan Man to the best of our abilities and am so excited to have such a fast and happy partner to run with. And maybe I will be able to put some of that education to work next weekend at Dog-On-It. Can’t wait!!