Trial Results

Had a trial this weekend here in southern, Maine. Boy was it hot.. even inside!

Kiba frickin ROCKED this weekend! So proud of her!!!

From November - February she had been doing really awesome... but the last two trials she totally bombed.. and I found out why this week. Somehow.. back in November I trained her using the opposite hand that a normal person would use.. and that's how we had been trialing until someone corrected us in February. Not really thinking of it.. we used the correct hand (thought not the correct hand for Kiba it seems) and that is why she didnt respond to me. Used the "wrong hand"... oh yeah.. did everything I asked. Uh huh.. oh yeah.. Go Kiba!

Saturday: Q and 2nd place in Jumpers, Q and 1st in Snooker, Q and 2nd in Wildcard, and a NQ in Standard but placed first, NT for last run
Sunday: scratched standard run, Q and 3rd in Fullhouse, NQ in Colors - clean but over time, Q and 3rd in Jackpot

The only thing now really holding us back.. is weave poles. Standards has weaves.... that was a given we'd NQ that. She now needs 4 Standards Qs, and 1Q in all of her games to get her level 2 title.

Congratulations! Well done!

You should video yourself. Maybe your dog is cueing off your shoulders. Or it could be how you trained your dog initially. If you want to continue on don't give up on using the correct hand. I have no idea how you can use your wrong hand for most things... the dog would never see it .

There are reasons people around the world handle in a similar fashion.. it is the simplest and most consistent way for dogs. Just work hard on 'normal' handling and be consistent and your dog will get it.

Good luck

lol Greg Derrett calls using the hand/arm on the opposite side of the dog 'the evil arm'. Agreed the dog can't see it fast enough, if the dog is fast.
Congrats on your Q's.

No the dog is not fast... but getting faster! Funny how we never had distance work with the right arm.. but I can send her out with the evil one. Maybe because she's evil and plotting her takeover... hmm..

Maybe But if she gains any speed you will have to retrain. And that will mean going back to basics. Trust me (I have had to go back and retrain things that worked 'at the time') its much much faster to fix it now.