Carlee and Flex, BWxstaffy, 20mths, Canada

Hi Polona, sorry for being so late to get going here! It’s been a crazy couple of weeks!

So Flex and I entered our very first AAC trial on March 11! It was shortly after a motivation seminar with Nusa and I discovered getting him to bark really jazzes him up! I am also lucky enough to have Manca here working with me until mid May! I decided to include the two videos of the trial. I was so so happy with him. I was also very sick with a kidney infection (I didn’t know at the time) but I was in a lot of pain so I wasn’t running my best-yay! Lol here are my two runs: https://youtu.be/LO2oQsJPMWI and my second run https://youtu.be/pPkqKycdDw0
I definitely need to proof my A frame and weaves some more!
Here was a couple of runs at a fun match a week later guided by Manca (I also was pretty sick here) and I twisted my ankle at the end of the second run ?? but luckily I could walk it off! First run: https://youtu.be/lkL8W3TI06U second run: https://youtu.be/3SaqEv2I2ng

So today I decided to do crazy balls with the weaves slightly open to encourage speed. I was also trying to proof entry points, you can see I make a few mistakes ?‍♀️ But here you go! https://youtu.be/xoAcXYGHVt8

Thank you as always for you feedback! I did another session with the crazy balls and weaves and I think the flow was a lot better 🙂 he made a couple of mistakes but I just ignored them. I hope that’s ok? https://youtu.be/rWbP_nafKFM
I also did crazy balls with the wing wrapping. I’m curious to hear your feedback, I tried when there was moments of him just staring at me thinking, to either ask for something different or just keep my energy and ask very positive 🙂 https://youtu.be/hectI3jNw0o

Hi Polona,

I am so sorry I have been so absent during this course. I feel like I have a million things going on and I want to start from the beginning and work my way through. I am though looking for some tips and feedback on a couple things as I squeak under the wire of this course being over (when is it over?)
As you may remember from my ‘let’s play’ course I am extremely sensitive to what people say to me and what people think. A couple on months ago I had my mind blown a bit. I always thought the agility was first about proofing things and running clean and second about speed. Well I had my ass handed to me for thinking that. So now I have tried to completely let go of being perfect and I am just trying to runnn (I am trying I promise!). I’m having problems with Flex being motivated through the first part of courses, and halfway through he puts on the jets. I find our beginnings so hard. You will see what I mean in the videos I send you. Everyone has also brought to my attention how high he jumps, and how bad that is. I have no clue how to correct this 🙁 maybe you have some ideas?
The first set of videos is a UKI spring cup we attended in mid May and the last two videos are from a Reginald competition yesterday.

This video is day 1 of the UKI spring cup, speedstakes. I feel like we did pretty well once we ‘got rolling’ https://youtu.be/OhWaVemIw_8

This is our snooker run on day one, he had never heard a judge yell out numbers before so he ran over to see if she was talking to him (so cute baby dog), but again you can see it took a bit for him to get rolling. Unfortunately he missed his A frame contact so we got whistled out of the last sequence. https://youtu.be/0dOQmnr0FGQ

On day two of our UKI cup it was pouring so badly, he handled the change of scenery like a champion! This is our gamble. I’m so sorry about the teeter on my way to the end sequence ? my poor boy lol, luckily he seems ok. We don’t have contacts yet so I was trying to avoid the contact obstacles https://youtu.be/tCyTHI1Jz_Y

And last for the UKI spring cup was another speedstakes and I was super happy with it, but again a VERY slow start. https://youtu.be/xVF7cvsDuvE

Now… yesterday I was convinced to enter our huge Regionals competition. Just Steeplechase because of no contacts. It was not our best by far 🙁 I am still proud of him but again I hoping for tips from you. Our first run was not too bad. I didn’t set him up well for jump 2, our A frame work went right out the window and despite being a pretty solid weaving dog he had some trouble https://youtu.be/BT5T7QZXnsw

This second run… well I may have had a bit of a secret cry after. Not because we didn’t do well, but because he seemed so disconnected. After I had some time to caLm down I was able to rewatch the video and it wasn’t as bad as it felt in the moment. I feel like where I am going really wrong is how I start those courses. I wish SO much I had read lesson 6 before going but unfortunately I decided to read it today ?‍♀️ I was doing a bunch of tricks with him up until they told me to get into the ring and I was feeling really good about our energy level. But once I got into the ring they said wait please! And the previous dog had knocked a ton of stuff over, they adjusted tunnel bags and the previous competitor had dropped Kleenex so the judge needed a poo bag to pick it up. While I was standing there I could feel Flex loosing all the energy we had built up, and I had no treats of course, it was also super super hot compared to what we are used to. Anyways here it is. Le sigh https://youtu.be/qVRcL272HDU