I thought about finishing Aedan's RN but juggling 4 dogs may be a bit much.
My head was spinning a little to think of somebody bringing 4 dogs to a trial and shuffling them in and out of crates between classes. I'm sure there's people who do that, but I know people who stress out over just juggling 2 dogs at a time.
***I've been quiet over here, working through some minor problems.
Bertie was ready for trial earlier this year... but I made the mistake of taking him out hiking somewhere where he jumped in an icy lake and happily swam around. Pretty sure he pulled a muscle or had some form of "cold tail" (but more groin/leg muscle related), because it affected his jumps.
Broad jump especially was really messed up for a few weeks. Made me completely miserable because his broad jumps had been a bright spot in trials and matches.
One thing I'm training through right now - and it will require I get out and find other places to drop in for matches and training for the moment because Mon nights we don't get a chance to work on everything (it's one quibble about the format - even though we don't do the nightmare 10 minutes attention, 10 minutes heeling drain)...
Anyway, the issue I'm training through is getting my dog to do things perfect the first time. He actually is really good remembering what he's doing when we repeat an exercise after something's "not great" with the first time.
I think this is what would burn me in trials right now. I definitely have seen that with DOR with him figuring out that if he doesn't drop that first time, we will just repeat it and he'll get a treat then. I swear - his little brain works like that.
Other thing I'm working through is Mr. Social visiting the judge instead of retrieving his dumbbell. I have not had this happen in a trial (THANK GOD), but it happened in the last 2 fun matches. I was pretty frustrated to see this pop up when we got the broad jump muscle twinge cleared up. It messes up 2 exercises in Open!
We had been entered in a trial this past week but because of last month's fun matches, I decided to SKIP the trial.
There's a golden retriever breed and obedience specialty down in OH later this month. I really like the judge (Tamara Woodrow) and it's the regional specialty so kinda special. I have a few more days to decide before I do online entry for this, but I'm so tempted to enter him in the obedience trial even though I don't think we have that retrieve problem perfectly cleared up. It would be fun just to do... esp if it's a big trial. <= I'm waffling.