Chute and Broad Jump

Tonight since it's so hot we waited to do dinner until about 7 PM. Hawk's close to the jump height cut-off in AKC, so every ounce counts - she gets the same amount of food as usual, but instead of working for treats we're working for dinner (she doesn't seem to mind). I measured her at 13 1/2" the other night, so hopefully she'll get safely in the 12" class (cut-off is 14").

I didn't want to drill her with her first trial tomorrow, so we focused on the chute and the broad jump. She had a little trouble remembering the point of the chute, but soon she was zooming through it, so we focused on coming out straight, with her head down. She seems to be getting it, but I certainly won't be running too close to the chute, just in case!!

The broad jump is going great - the only issue is she tries to "wrap" it if I'm not close enough to her, and doesn't jump the entire thing. I think with the jump standards there she would be fine though, and she was jumping much straighter by the end of it.

I think they actually turned out to be a good pair of obstacles to pair together in one lesson, since she had to focus on making sure she's completed the obstacle before attempting to "wrap" it.

Merlin and I worked a little bit on the chute as well, since he had a bad chute experience in April (got stuck in a wet chute), just to give him some more positive chute experiences before this weekend and next.

Instead of having the goal of qualifying, I usually have a couple things I want to try for in our runs. If we achieve those things, make progress toward them, or do something else wonderful I'm generally pleased with the run (regardless of whether we Q or not). So.. goals for this weekend.

Goals for Merlin
- speeding up! I'm going to attempt to really rev him up on the start line and then go, and avoid start line stays if at all possible. He can do them, but he slows down.
- remember for me to slow down on the bottom of the contacts! If I slow down, he'll hit his contacts (we stopped 2o2o'ing because he would get very slow and worried, regardless of how enthusiastically we worked on it).
- trust him to find the weave entry.

Goals for Hawk
- hold all contacts!!!!!!!!!!!
- support the broad jump and chute as much as possible.
- let her weave as independently as possible.