Trial Issues

I guess I've never really gone into detail about Psyche's trial issues. Her trial issues are mostly just a lack of fun. She just doesn't enjoy trials the same way she does training. That said, I'm not about to give up on trialing with her, not just yet. A trial with Psyche could end with a Q, or it could end in runs where she literally did one obstacle then left the ring and refused to come back to me when I called her. Of course, we haven't had a trial like that in a few months, but they did happen.

We've decided to take a break from trialing, and that's been going on since April. Since then we've really been doing very little, which explains both of our out of shape issues. However, we're also looking for fun matches. For a long time, I thought that fun matches were the only thing I could do to help her issues. Of course, I was wrong. We're now working on just increasing her confidence in agility in new places. To do this, I've taken Psyche to my friend Erin's place to work there, we've gone over to another friend, Brenda's, and have a plan for next week to go over to Rachel and Heathers. We're also getting some PVC to make jumps this weekend, so after that we'll be taking some jumps, weaves, and a tunnel out to parks, school yards (gotta love summer!), and any place we see, really.

We've done one fun match this year so far (they just aren't common around here) and even with that one fun match I saw a huge difference in Psyche. She was a bit stressed out her first run or two, but by the end of the day, she was rushing to the start line, excited to go, and eager to work with me. We've got another fun match planned on the 23rd, and if I can get the day off, one on the 24th.

We're planning our re-debut to be at our club's trial this September, so until then we'll just be working on increasing confidence and getting back into shape!