When we first set up our club, one of our ambitions was to train someone to be able to compete, well I guess we'd better set a new goal as that goal has been well and truly exceeded :-D so many of you are competing, and not only competing but doing really well. And lots more of you are not far off being competition ready. We are so immensely proud of all of our club members and what you have achieved and the way you support each other at shows. We also love the variety of dogs we have training with us, it really does make you appreciate different training methods to try and get the best out of every partnership.
While we have lots of you competing now, I know a few of you are still chasing that first elusive clear round, well don't get disheartened it will come and even if you don't go clear try to focus on all the positives and the things that have improved since your last run, some of my best runs have been eliminations! At present I am ecstatic if one of dogs nails a perfect running contact in the ring, even if we get eliminated somewhere else on the course. Every dog will have it's strengths and weaknesses, the weaknesses at times will be frustrating, but train hard to improve them and try to play to your dogs strengths. I often hear at training "but he/she is too fast for me" while that maybe your particular frustration, there's also another person training that is doing their best to get that extra bit more speed out of their dog, no dog is perfect not even Winnie. Winnie is pretty much perfect in my eyes, but her weakness is she is a big beast of a dog so doesn't turn tight at all (it could be improved with training but she's just not as wick and bendy as other dogs) however she's a very honest dog who is the most careful jumper and very rarely knocks poles and can bounce jumps that those faster nippier dogs will need to put two strides in between. Over the years I could have got disheartened that Winnie didn't always have that bit of extra speed but I never ever wanted to be stood on that start line with any other dog than her, I knew she'd keep the poles up, would nail that weave entry and bounce her way round the course, so who cares if she wasn't the fastest. Enjoy every run with your dog, even the eliminations.