still here...

still here, just haven't been doing much.

rah showed last weekend in utility b. he did everything. but on directed jumping, he took the wrong jumps. don't get me wrong. he took them BOTH. so most people didn't realize we had NQ'd but he picked his first jump and picked wrong - i sent him to the left and he went to the right - so on the second jump i sent him over the wrong jump again just to get him to go to the left. which is good because he was so wound that he took off on the go out without me actually, but realized that i hadnt sent him and actually ran backwards back to my side two steps and sat down shaking waiting to run out. i could tell right then that this exercise was going to be an exercise in (lack of?) restraint. and sure enough, he turned, sat, and almost took the jump immediately - he got right up and almost jumped but sat back down and backed up to his go out spot probably because i almost yelled at him in the ring and the look on my face was one of absolute shock!, but he was focused on the wrong jump from the start.


this is becoming very frustrating for me and im starting to lose hope. i dont know, maybe it would be easier if he didnt understand or know what he was doing. i could almost make more excuses for him then, that he doesn't know his job. but its like every trial we are at, there's one little thing that i don't know how to explain, one teeny little thing (sometimes outside of my control). which i know is obedience in some respects - but the dog is so heavily trained and proofed, but im going broke showing the dog and its not coming together. i havent even been to training much these past two weeks because im getting frustrated with him and its not his fault, but im truly just getting pissed off. everyone else and their mother have UD's now on their dogs - and half these dogs are nowhere near as proofed or trained as rah, and DONT understand their job as much as him, but they still get the job done in the ring - but rah wont or cant in the ring. he's trying to do everything so exceptionally fast that he's not slowing it down enough to think about what im ACTUALLY asking him to do, instead of what he thinks he needs to do. he's having fun doing this, but having fun doesn't get UD legs. the judge was laughing at him so much in the ring and i just wanted to ask her to STOP because it just makes it worse for him - all the laughing just makes him put on more of a show and get stupider because it encourages him. and everyone just keeps telling me to stay calm and don't encourage him and i try so hard, i know i need to be a better handler.

he's entered this weekend, but its outside and it's been raining for 40 days and 40 nights - so im not hopeful that i will even get to show because the forecast has thunderstorms that day and i wont show him in a storm. much less jump him at 28 on wet grass.

sorry for the whiney post. i know all this is, is whining.