Money in the Bank

That's what we did last night. We put a great big (long overdue!) deposit into the contact bank. I have gone a very long time taking advantage of Secret's super awesome foundation training, failing to admit that if you don't go back and revisit those foundations, they eventually start to fade away.

So, we went right back to square one. Using food, we did the good 'ol "jump on from the side and drive as quickly as possible into position." Secret thought it was about the most fun thing in the world -- Shaping! Tricks! Food! All of her favorite things in life. :o)

We moved on to doing the whole dog walk and tried to focus on getting into the end position faster. You know how she is with food, though; not the fastest dog on the planet. But still, she was happy, eager & having fun -- So in all, I consider it a good, successful session.

Why didn't we do the full a-frame?

This happened during our last coursework night. :o( That side of the a-frame has started to look bad the last couple of months (warping/separating), but I think it was Luke who finally punched a hole through the wood.

When it happened I thought should be able to limp it through the rest of this year -- If I set the course so that they go up that side, it should be safe enough. But I put it back up on my mover and last night I noticed it is warping & separating significantly more. Major sadness. I should probably just put it back on the ground so it doesn't get any worse.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any. Otherwise, I started looking around on the internet for my options. I found this web site that has a pretty reasonably price aluminum frame. I'm contemplating buying that this fall, storing it in the garage for the winter and then hoping my dad would like to do a "craft project" with me in the spring. That would help to separate the investment, at least. I'd have to order rubber for it in the spring; that way we could just attach the plywood and slap on rubber. Easy peasy, yes? I hope so.

But on the subject of this post, if anyone has some spare money sitting in the bank, I'd be happy to help you out there. ;o) The timing just sucks. With equipment that lives outside all the time, I suppose I should have thought more strongly about aluminum from the start.

Hopefully I can get my dog walk through another year so that I don't have to make two big investments....

Prior to doing our contact reinforcement session, all the dogs worked through the big arc. Our setup last night was three hoops leading into a 15' tunnel at the top of the yard followed by three more hoops. It was a 50 yard sprint more or less.

Secret really hauls ass on the last half the arc, but she is slower on the first half. I hoped having the tunnel at the top would help suck her, but alas I just don't think she's super motivated by tunnels -- Not because tunnels aren't fun, but I think she has a bit of a disconnect when she can't see me. We worked a bit on making driving away from me super fun and overall it was a good session. Any time the jolly ball is involved, Secret has fun.

All this is, of course, because in a mere single solitary week we will be running at NADAC Championships. :o) Run orders were posted last night and it just makes it ever so much more real & exciting. We're getting close! I'm quite tickled with the run order, as I somehow ended up in line with friends with every dog. How awesome is that??

I have so much to do before leaving. I haven't really given a thought to packing yet, as I'm more consumed with everything that needs to done prior to that.... Today's project was stall signs, as you'll see above! SO much more to do.