While at LaCamas, I asked a fellow training friend...."what makes a person decide to move a dog to open?" Over the years, I have seen a few dogs moved to open prematurely, in my humble opinion. One would be my Sally. I ran her in four pro novice trials before I moved her up and, though I do not regret it....I do feel like I pushed her too fast in our relationship. Now a year later, I believe we are clicking and she is doing open work with me.
My friend shared some sage words and I now summarize and share them here with my interpretation..... "move the dog to open when you are no longer training during the run, when your dog is working for you and you feel you have the team relationship to work through what can happen on an open course". This isn't to say that your runs will go perfect, or that you don't have things to continue to work on and train, or that your dog doesn't need time, miles, and experiences. But certainly do not move a dog up that can not complete a pro novice course time and again.....and I am not talking about winning.....instead completion of a course with good method and team work.
Who would have ever thought at the beginning of May....as I began my intense "Figure Nell Out or Die Trying" quest.....that I would be moving her to open at Colliding Rivers Classic Sheepdog Trial....but here I am. Nell's debut! I feel like we have been a consistent team all summer...with Nell wanting to work with me each time we go to sheep. So, here I go....jumping off that cliff into the ocean of possibilities! Bring it on!
I'm packing the car......and getting ready to leave....and of course killing a bunch of time trying to sort out my inability to post photos here!
Seize the Day!!!!
I intermittently have trouble posting photos to blogger. I choose them and click upload and it just hangs (says it is uploading forever but nothing actually happens).
ReplyDeleteIf I am trying to upload multiple photos at one time, uploading the photos one at a time instead usually fixes it. If I am uploading 1 photo at a time, I generally have to wait until later. If I come back in an hour or 2 (or a day or 2, you know how my schedule is LOL) it is generally fine...
Does that help?
Thank you! I have been contemplating that very question and you have helped me realize that I'm not ready yet. My dog has an awesome outrun, but we've uncovered some issues lately and he's just not ready to go to open yet.
ReplyDeleteok, so that was supposed to go on the previous post. sorry...
ReplyDeleteYou can do all the preparation in the world, but you still have to jump eventually! :) I'm glad you feel like you can jump with Nell, you guys are looking good.
ReplyDelete