Whoo - hoo!!!!

Absolutely NO problem on the dogwalk at the trial. I am hopeful that this
means that he isn't going to generalize dogwalks. He has always hated the
one at class. I kept replaying that first attempt at the dogwalk in class
that day. Because of space limitations, the dogwalk was up next to the
wall. Not tight - but too close for a person to walk there - maybe not even
sideways. The course was a 180 to the dogwalk. I suspect I cut the swing
short and brought him in at an angle rather than as straight as I should
have. He scrambled up on it sideways (still in the yellow) but may have
slipped a little (I heard the toenails) which would have made him slide
toward the wall. It's my best guess anyway. And if that was it, then it's
not something that he will ever see in a trial - it can never be that close
to a wall.

Our standard run on Friday had a dogwalk-jump discrimination toward the end
of the run. I had decided that if Spenser *chose* the dogwalk over the
(correct) jump that I would celebrate and grab the last two or three jumps
on our way out of the ring.

He didn't (but it didn't matter because his handler had already blocked him
on a tricky weave pole entry) but he never blinked when it was time to do
the dog walk. Same thing on Saturday and again today.

We are still absolutely NOT going to do the dogwalk at class EVER again. It
needs to be replaced and the instructor knows it. So I'm going to boycott
it until it happens. (Which he pretty much expects me to do.)

Unfortunately Spenser had that same lousy handler on Saturday. I
anticipated the next obstacle at one point on each run and he reacted (as he
should) and pulled off for a refusal each time. He was perfect and I
deserved to be whacked with a rolled-up newspaper.

Sunday I behaved much better on the standard run and it was glorious. Six
MACH points too - which made it even better. Then I was back to blocking
him at the weaves for the jumpers run.

Sassy and DH went 0-6 but still had a good weekend. He hasn't been able to
train with her for over a month because of a broken rib. I've been running
her and she was starting to adapt her speed to mine. So their rhythm was
off. By Sunday she was back up to full crowd-pleasing speed but he wasn't.
He's still about a half a beat off in his handling - which when you're
running a Jet Dog is a day late. Sassy didn't care - she was just glad to
get her buddy back and get to race him.

Thanks for the input.. Fingers still crossed that he's had enough positive
experiences on dogwalks that this will all stay in the past.

Judy