Train More Compete Less

Well, USDAA today… we did teams. Teams is pretty cool in that you run the same courses for all dogs. So there’s not started, advanced, or elite levels. So the courses were pretty challenging. I’ll use that as an excuse for not qualifying. However, Chase does run at the excellent level in AKC agility so I really don’t have that much of an excuse. And he is capible… okay I am capable of doing more and better. Chase actually does great, and he was even paying attention to me today which is hard for him coming off a flyball weekend as we did last weekend.

So I’ve been thinking… I have been trialing a lot lately. And actually for the last few years. And I used to like trialing better than training. But now… I’m getting frustrated that we don’t Q (Q stands for Qualify) as much as I’d like to. And I don’t know how much other people Q, but really it doesn’t matter, it only matters what my own standards are.

So I think I’m going to seriously consider skipping some trials and do more training instead. Though it’s kinda a good time to say that anyway, because it’s not high trialing season anymore. There’s one AKC trial in July I’ve already entered, and there’s another USDAA agility trial in August. There’s more AKC in September but I’m going to have to reassess where we are and see if I can have some goals and then determine if I want to enter them.

Anyway… I’m not so sure I like teams in USDAA because it’s more stress and the other person(s) is depending on your Qs. Tomorrow and Monday will be better because it’s just for Chase and I.

On a good note, I brought Tatum and Muffit and they both did really well. Tatum, of course, loves going to trials. And Muffit just needs to get out and get used to the environment and learn to think and understand that he needs to pay attention to me in those sorts of situations. He is dead tired now… which is good! He is fairly high energy so to poop him out is a good thing.

Well Chase is not in the elite level so I think we are going to go late tomorrow and try to sleep in a little bit. I do love sleeping in. And hopefully we can work together a bit better tomorrow. Chase did tunnel suck on me a couple of times which wasn’t good, so I still have to watch that and train that more, too.