I don't know what's going on with Atilla, but ever since his runs at the Twilight Pairs trial, it's like a switch has flicked in his brain and he's back running like he did in the distant past before he had his accident. At home, at training and the best bit ..... at trials as well, and I'm loving it.
I'm experimenting with 'minimalist trialling' at the moment where I have only been entering a handful of runs in the morning and then taking him off for a long walk or a run in the afternoon to really try and build up our relationship- mostly just some one on one time without Cruz and Ivy in tow. So far I am enjoying this new arrangement and if Atilla's performance is anything to go by, then so is he.
At his last 3 trials with this strategy in place (2 runs, 2 runs, 3 runs - normally I would have close to that many on one day) he has finished his Open Jumping title (finally - for some strange reason this one eluded us, maybe has to do with not bothering to enter it all that much) with a nice 3rd place, 1st place in Excellent Gamblers, a 5th place in Masters Jumping - on a course with a whole ton of passes, and a 2nd place in Masters agility - again on a course with a number of passes. Generally we tend to finish just out of the places in Masters so I was delighted with this one.
Cruz has only had one run since Warrnambool - I am still undecided about what the best course of action is for him. He did manage to get the final pass needed for his Novice agility title which I never thought would happen after the lead up to going into the ring.
It was an incredibly windy day and Novice agility was scheduled for the ring closest to the road, which is quite a busy road. He was freaked from the traffic noise plus everything flapping around on the outside of the ring in the wind so I let the steward know where I was and then took him up the side of the ring where it was a bit calmer to try and focus him.
As the dog before me entered the ring, I started to walk over to the ring entrance and someone's tent blew down as we passed it and the flap hit him on the back. Poor thing was absolutely terrified. He literally lay down on the ground and wouldn't move. So here I am doing the Lynda Orton- Hill 'suck it up buttercup' thing and practically dragging him over to the ring entrance, just as I finally managed to get him to sit and focus on me, the handler of the dog before me decides that the first few obstacles are enough for her dog today and she will quit, so they are asking me to bring Cruz into the ring. Disaster !
I nearly turned tail and didn't bother - it was also a pretty tough course for Novice with a Masters level weave entry to boot - but decided to see what he did and if he totally shut down then we would leave the ring. To my surprise he moved off the start line when I released him, nailed the weave entry at obstacle number 3 and ran clear. Even though he was running nowhere near his normal speed, I was so proud of him. I know I complain about his lack of focus a lot, but this time I actually thought he was really brave considering how totally freaked he was before he went in. And he still gave me enough speed to finish in 2nd place, a couple of seconds behind a fast working collie and more than 8 seconds faster than the 3rd placed dog.
So his agility career will continue, even if we only enter one run per day for a bit, as he seems to be able to cope with this. We are now going to focus on Excellent Agility for a bit before he makes his Masters Jumping debut. If I thought he didn't like running agility then I would retire him, but when the conditions are 'just right' for him, he is loving it and turning in some terrific runs so we will soldier on for now and continue to work on handling his stressors at training and in some different environments.
If I stop obsessing over speed and just relax and let him run at his own pace then I am starting to enjoy running him too, even if he is 'my little challenge' at times.
