Solve one problem... create a new one?

The rental at Pawsitive Partners yesterday went pretty well.  The tire was no problem at all once Penny figured out what she needed to do with it, and her contacts improved greatly once I reiterated and reinforced what my 2o2o criteria are.  She got tired pretty quickly though so I wasn't able to do a whole lot of sequencing with contacts to see how it went when other things were added to the mix.  I think that as long as I can keep her with me well enough to be able to cue her to slow down a bit ("easy"), she'll be able to get it.  She was also able to do all 12 weave poles this time so definitely pleased with that!

I am however a bit worried about the teeter now.  Hopefully I am just overreacting, but she got bounced off of it early on during the rental, and actually bailed a few other times when we tried it.  I would say it was about 50/50 of either bailing on the way up, or getting through it.  I do think that it helped for me to be right there with her, verbally encouraging her to keep going (and also sort of physically blocking her ability to jump off the side.)  Luckily we have a teeter at home, so I see a lot of practice with that in the near future to build up her confidence with it again, probably at a low height and working our way back up.  Again, I think it will be important for me to be close to her when she does it at the trial.  When she got bounced off, it was at the beginning of the rental and she was pretty excited and got waaaay ahead of me as she took it.  So I think a combination of practice at home and making sure I don't let her get too far ahead of me with it (for now) will be the most beneficial.  Could be wrong though and I could also be way overreacting, I wouldn't put it past her to have completely forgotten about it by now :P

I also plan on starting running contacts soon, for the A-frame at the very least, since Penny stops pretty hard on her front end.  Possibly also for the dogwalk, depending on how she does with it :)   2o2o will have to do for the upcoming trials for now though.  I do think that she understands what the criteria are, it will just be a matter of getting there slowly enough to give her brain time to think about it!

I also think I may have, in Jenn's words, "created a monster" in terms of the crate/mat haha!  I may have to start adding in the step of sitting down and  getting the leash put back on before we go night-night and get cookies, or I fear she might dash out of the ring and head for her mat at the end of her runs!