Reality Check

I haven't put an update on Liryk's running dogwalk for a bit and so I thought I'd write about how things are going....


Recently I've made up a mini dogwalk, so that Liryk is no longer jumping up onto the down plank. It's currently sitting at approximately 50cm in height, and she is now sent through a tunnel prior to the walk, creating more speed......


Now it seems I OBVIOUSLY didn't really think about the WHOLE picture when it comes to a running dogwalk, in that it requires the handler ie ME to be able to keep up with their dog. I had this light bulb moment, after sending her through the tunnel and over her mini dogwalk for the first time. My first thought was ..... I think I need a 2o2o!!! Just out of curiosity I timed her down plank and scared myself a little. The one I timed was 0.5sec, so if you times that by 3 (up,across and down plank) it makes her dogwalk potentially 1.5sec ....... and at that moment it kind of sounded like this in my head "WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" :-) so since then I've been on a mission to get fit! Which is now also my New Years Resolution :-)


As much as I'm a little scared about being able to handle a running dogwalk, I'm really excited at seeing Liryk progress and it's SUCH an adrenaline rush hearing her come pounding over the planks. I can't WAIT to see what her dogwalk will look like and I have my fingers tightly crossed hoping I can get it right!!!


Touchwood ..... her jumping has reduced dramatically, though she is quite sensitive to change. Anything that looks slightly different to her "normal" picture and the jumping comes back in grand style. The latest quirky thing is that she has been attempting the down plank in one stride, she still hits the yellow but it tends to be very high up and it's not what I'm looking for.


I think my biggest fear is judges not being able to "see" her hit her contact. Now that I feel that Liryk understands her job, I've really only been rewarding her deep hits and she is beginning to do these more and more, over her high hits.


This our most recent training session. One jump, one high hit and three deep hits.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSJIx6BLboI
Happy New Year!!!!