late to class

Last night Spot and I were late to agility class. It was only partly my fault. I left a couple minutes late, but then they were doing construction on 495, and it was down to 1 lane, so I got stuck. We were about 15 minutes late.

We warmed up and then did some dog walks, some tires, some chutes and a few jumps. Then Carolyn set up a jumpers course for us that had 10 obstacles. There was a wing jump and a front cross. Spot did ok, but I wasn't looking where I was going and mis-directed him a few times! Totally a case of handler error. He did have some trouble with the wing jumps and going around them instead of over.

I think the issue is he needs me to be closer to the jump to support him, but he's so fast, I'm not used to getting there. Shelby is slower, and I don't need to be as close, so it's a challenge.

I'm a little concerned that Carolyn isn't as disciplined as Denielle. Like with Denielle, we did jump practice sending from all angles, around the clock, and also worked more on weave entries. We're kind of winging it with Carolyn. She seems more concerned with enthusiasm, which is valid, I think. With Shelby I was always very serious about training and I think that put a lot of pressure on her which would cause her to disengage and/or slow down. So we'll see what happens. I think next week we're moving up to Intermediate!