Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Slow Down, You're Moving Too Fast!

I'm rushing, rushing, rushing to get the young dogs up & online for flyball & agility. And I have to remind myself to slow down & not push them too fast. Betty has a way of putting on her own brakes since she's not confident. Nikki's got excess confidence...so much she'd like to have everyone hear about it and if you aren't careful she'll jump all over you & put confidence all over your face. I know especially with Jester & Bridget's agility training that in many areas we pushed too fast and now I deal with those consequences. So I'm giving kudos to myself (& Steve) for doing lots of extra work with Betty & to myself for holding Nikki back in her agility class. She got the go ahead to move outta beginner class, but I'm reminding myself to slow down, she's not ready for full sized contact equipment, she needs to learn to stop barking and just execute, and I'd like a rock solid stay on her before we advance. Plus I kind think sometimes it looks like she knows more just because I know a bit more than the average beginner student. Nikki did well at her first flyball fun match too, but again, I have to remember to slow down my very fast dog! So her first tournament will be run backs only, there I said it, I'm pacing ourselves!! I also still don't think she's solid enough to go head to head against another dog yet. I'd like to see her do more head to head w/o a barrier before I trust her. So much easier to tell someone else to not push their dog, than to listen to myself!