Moving Forward

After a couple of very emotional weeks and saying goodbye to Soda it's been nice to immerse myself back into training with Cassie and Fizz.  Cassie is now just over 17 months of age and it's hard to believe that she is old enough to trial in less than a month.  I had her measured a couple of weeks ago and she is a strapping 26.5cms so into the 200 height she goes.  There is a part of me that would have liked to have seen her make 300 given that there are a lot more dogs competing in that height but hopefully we'll get that opportunity at ADAA trials.

Cassie's dog walk is looking pretty good, although when there is a tunnel in front of it she's not quite so careful as to where her last stride might be.  But generally speaking it's consistently nice and fast and there is no doubt that it's one of her favourite obstacles.  She's more than capable of running a novice jumping course now and she is reading my body and handling really well.  While I'm waiting for my new AF to be build I've started working with a half size AF that I have.  She understands how the mat game works and picked it up really quickly so hopefully the full size one won't take long.  We've also worked our way to twelve weavers and have started see-saw training.

Over summer I'll be working on novice sequences and tying all the bits of equipment together.  Of course our biggest issues is still Cassie visiting everyone.  Although we had a few weeks there were it looked like we'd worked through it her disappearing mid sequence has reappeared.  What can I say, there is such massive value for her in other people and dogs and it's going to take me a lot of work to get through it.  I do have a plan.  How long it will take and how successful I may be is yet to be seen but we have to start somewhere.  I have no doubt we will have some ups and downs for a while yet.  I'm probably feeling a little more frustrated than normal given how much natural ability she has.  I did want her first trial to be the Western Classic in March but I'm not optimistic that she'll be ready and if I have even a sceric of doubt that she won't stay in the ring with me then I won't run her.  Failing that I'll aim for the State Agility Trial in April.  I can't wait to trial her as she's going to be a blast but I'm sure that patience will pay off.  And I have to be even more determined than she is!