Mimzy and 2X2s

Well, Deets can do everything he needs to be able to do to compete and do well in standard classes, and Landon is doing well on his distance work, so now it is time to focus on Mimzy and get her up-to-speed. Mimzy still has a baby-brain. She's only 18 months and still acts like a little puppy and is still a little unsure of herself. Obviously, she's doing really well with jumpers and has pretty good distance work, but we still really need to get it in gear and get out contacts and our teeter totter and our weaves. We have been working steadily with the 2X2 weaves at home, but she is not as mature or fast-learning as Deets, and I haven't had as much time to work with her as I did when I was committed to 2X2s with Deets, which is my own fault. However, in a fairly short amount of time she has gotten up to doing 6 poles.

As you can see, she's still a little unsure of her footing, but she is driving foreword fairly well and understands her entries and what her job is. Once we can put two sets of 6 together and get her to twelve, I will go back and do some exercises that Susan Garrett shows in her dvd to show the dog how to properly navigate through the weave poles. It is amusing to me that Mimzy will be weaving before she has contacts or even the teeter totter.

We've been clicker training the teeter totter and she's getting the idea, but we still have some steps to go through before she can do the whole thing together, and because she's a little fearful it may take a while. She is entered in standard level 1 at a CPE trial the second weekend of May, where she will not have to teeter or weave, but I am concerned about her making her contacts on the dog walk and A-frame. I need to get her going on her contacts, but since lovely big Deets broke my contact trainer, I can only work when we get out to CM Streak.