Competition is Fierce

I was at Flexi's USDAA trial yesterday. Gusto is totally qualified for Nationals but my last GP Q down in Maryland wasn't flawless. I ran conservatively to get his final Q so I let him land wide to guard the bars. He has been dropping 1 bar per class lately so I was getting extremely annoyed with him. I realized that I cannot push him with my own ground speed and I cannot ask for real tight turns in certain situations right now because he cannot handle it.

This weekend I set a goal for keeping the bars up or carrying him out if he didn't. I have really been focused on teaching him how to deal with all kinds of situations while he is jumping. I still work his weavepoles because he will forget to rock back to get in but my primary focus has been jumping. I do not do jump grids with Gusto. He does them perfectly so I do not feel that is helping him. Instead, I set up weird angles, I send him to jumps that he notoriously cuts too tight. I send him to the backside - all kinds of situations while I am running, talking, throwing toys. If the bar comes down, he gets in trouble, bars stays up then he gets praised and rewarded.

Maybe the hard work is starting to pay off. He was truly amazing yesterday. We went 3 for 3 clean. First run was Snooker and he took a nasty leap off the frame because he didn't get on straight. After making sure he was ok, we finished the run and he won the class. Next run was Standard - he ran very nice but went wide in several places because I am letting him jump before asking him to do anything. He took 2nd - behind his brother, Whip. Not sure what the time difference was but it was at least .5 seconds. Grand Prix was last. I really wanted him to run another one clean. I only have 2 local GP Qs EVER.

I went to the line not with winning in mind but with qualifying. I wanted him to keep his bars up so I didn't push him. Although, I wasn't jogging either but I was not asking for tight turns. He ran a beautiful run but had several wide turns and got caught in the tunnel so he took 2nd place behind Drifter by .4 seconds.

I have taken second place to 4 dogs locally - all of which have placed or won Nationally. The competition is tight in this part of the country. It makes us all better handlers and trainers. I have alot of work to do to reach some of my goals or dreams with Gusto. He is not quite ready to be pushed. You cannot spare wide turns if you want to win or even place Nationally.

I'm off to Perry on Wednesday for my favorite regional event. I will be going down with running clean in mind and will have to live with whatever results that gives me. For now, I'm an also-ran.