At Puget Sound Labrador Retriever Association Sky did 5 runs without a Q :-(
Stephen admits that 3 of the NQ's were his fault. On Saturday they started with Open Fast - the Send was incredible easy - two jumps in a straight line, he positioned Sky in line with the jumps in a sit, walked to the other end of the arena and then called him, he did both jumps plus another that wasn't part of the send. He did the weaves perfectly too, but then Stephen proceeded to mess up his run, Stephen got him to do the A frame for 8 points (on which he missed his contacts) and ignored the teeter (7 points) and tunnel (9 points) which were (with hindsight) easy. They scored 50 points - not enough to qualify and Stephen was very cross with himself as this was the easiest Fast source they have run and Sky would have got his title if they had Q'd.
On Sat Open Jumpers there were two parallel paths "home" and Stephen sent Sky down the wrong one - 3 off-course jumps and another NQ. Again very annoying as he had successfully completed the hardest part of the course with style.
They didn't Q on Novice Std either - but this time it was Sky's fault - he missed both the dog-walk and A-Frame contacts, but did the teeter perfectly.
Stephen says that they seem to have hit a wall. Sky can't or won't make his contacts, and Stephen's not handling him very well either.
One thing he did discover is that Sky only knock's bars over or barks at Stephen when he doesn't give Sky clear guidance where Stephen wants him to go. Sky ran Saturday's Open jumpers and Novice Std course silently because Stephen gave him clear direction where he needed to go. Sky barked liked mad on the two Fast courses and today's Jumpers course because Stephen believes he did not give Sky clear instructions.
