Private Lesson and Grid Work
We had a great day off. Cisco and Riot had a private lesson with Claudia and Riot worked really well. I learned some new handling techniques and Riot continues to amaze me at how well he can read things. It’s so hard to remember he’s still a baby. I asked Claudia about running him at 26” for USDAA. She didn’t see any reason why he couldn’t, but warned me that some dogs do have an issues with that 6” height difference between AKC and USDAA, other dogs don’t have an issue with adjusting.
Last night Riot and I had Handling 3. Typically the sequences in handling 3 are from masters or excellent level courses, but tonight was grid work. Of course my first through was blech grid work, this should be easy. Well of course I was wrong and our grid sequences were some of the harder sequences we’ve seen this session. The thing about the grid is because of the tighter spacing, the dog is forced to collect more and these big jumping dogs need to work to adjust. This was really good for Riot as the more confidence he gets, the more of an issue collection is going to be.
I’ve also learned the very important lesson that is if my mouth doesn’t open quick enough and there is a tunnel ahead, Riot is taking it.
Overall, it was a really good day. I asked on Facebook about a baby dog team for Riot for the Mid-Atlantic Agility showcase in April (this will be Ri’s first USDAA trial). Someone decided that it would be great to pair Riot with Elsie’s Prowler and Judy’s Annie — two very experienced dogs who have plenty of DAM Q’s. So Riot and I will have two wise ones to guide us through our first DAM tournament. I’m looking forward to it!
