Binx and I are still practicing the exercises we were given a couple weeks ago. We trained in the rain this past Saturday morning and his distance was so much deeper than usual that I was afraid to work him again after that...I just wanted to stop while it was so good!! We'll keep practicing this week and have another lesson scheduled for Saturday afternoon to see if we're moving in the right direction.
I also had a "trial lesson" with Rhyme last week. I am planning to run her in Pro Novice at Mary Brighoff's fun trial in October, and since I have never trialed before..I thought it would be a good idea to do an overview with Nancy before I go. Rhyme is already trained through Open...so obviously this was a lesson for me more so than Rhyme. Anyway, I am quickly learning that "handling" is much harder than it looks! I am just terrible at lines - really. I suppose practice is the only thing to help that, but it is very frustrating for me. The other problem I am having is that Rhyme doesn't always take the first command. Combine that with the fact that I am a novice handler, one whose brain doesn't always register what I need to do until a couple of seconds too late, and I don't have any more "seconds" to re-flank her or tell her to stop more than once. So....we are doing some close up work, similar to what I do with Binx, so that I am in closer and can reinforce the stop as an "immediate stop" and also make sure she doesn't think it's ok to continue to creep forward after I've asked her to stop :-)... I'm sure she knows that I need help and she is trying to bail me out! I wish she could teach Binx how to square his flanks...hers are beautiful!
That's where we are for now...still trudging along and getting more humble every day.
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