This past weekend I showed Zipper 3 days in a row at Lake St. Louis. It's indoors, on dirt. I do like the surface, it's safe and they had it well watered. Unfortunately this facility is dirt outside the rings as well as inside. Which means that we had dust and dirt *everywhere*. Usually at shows I can get at least a couple of days out of a pair of jeans, but not here. Everything had to be shed into the laundry basket each night, it was filthy. Zipper was a bit snorty all weekend and his eyes were teary from the dirt.
No Qs, but he's getting a lot closer! I'm still not happy with his weaves. He's doing them well at the building now, but not so much at trials. I think that in retrospect, I will not ever again teach a dog using anything but channels. He just doesn't really drive through poles, and under stress it's the first thing to break down.
On the other hand, Zipper would have Qd each day in Jumpers if not for the weaves. He took direction beautifully, had some super lines. He did miss one front cross, but he demonstrated he's more than ready to tackle Excellent level courses.
In Standard, he was completely distracted Friday, looking like he did in Massachusetts. My heart sank. But he got better and better. Yesterday's run was very focused. He got his weave entry then skipped out and I kept going, then I pulled him off not one but two jumps. But I got a lead-out in! Yay!
So my plan is to work him on weaves every day until they're so ingrained he's doing them in his sleep. :)
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