good night...good boy

Last night we trained at Gail's place.  The first thing we ran was a grid with 5 jumps spaced 25 feet apart with a tunnel at the end - I was to send Triumph to the tunnel and race down the grid of jumps beating him to the last jump - I was very impressed with how symmetrical and balanced his jumping was as there was a time when this kind of jump grid would have been very difficult for him!

Then we ran a couple of courses.  Triumph nailed every contact and did not dive into position on the dog walk or the aframe and he got every weave entry and never popped out early and he was an angel on his start lines...progress!!!

Although I used a couple of "helper" jumps, Triumph's jumping was, for the most part, very good!  He never launched himself and was taking off appropriately at most, if not all, the jumps (and of course, at the jumps where there was a "helper" jump). 

Triumph's idea of running a course is to get from A to B as fast as he possibly can without really thinking about what he needs to and should be doing to get there - he has no regard for his body and the more "experience" he gains, and the more times we trial, it seems the faster he goes.  The helper jump seems to help get him to "think" about what he needs to be doing instead of mindlessly running as fast as he can without any regard for anything!

I am curious and also somewhat anxious to see how this carries over at the upcoming USDAA trial this weekend in Vero Beach - my fingers and toes are crossed as I do not want him to crash another jump, especially the double, and I certainly do not want him to hurt himself!!

I love my dog...