Bunbury a bust!

Trial #7: April 3rd Bunbury Dog Club - well we are just going to pretend we didn't even enter this one! Her first run was Masters agility and it was going well untill the 3rd last bar which came down. Bad handler (me!) didn't stop her and I'm pretty sure this set the tone for the rest of her runs - where she took down the first bar in each just about! So just over 3 hours driving and NO legs today :-((( But I must admit I learnt a valuable lesson today. We have been working very intensively on her jumping - and targeting the dropping of bars. I have sought advice and I am sticking to a very clear, concise and stringent criteria for her jumping behaviour. And I have been noticing a steady but slow improvement - today it felt like she wasn't even bothering in her first few runs. My mood with her got progressively worse after each of those runs and I actually wondered why her efforts were so so slow and lazy off the start lines. Then I realised - as hardnails as I feel Raven is (she is not soft in any way shape or form) she certainly is affected by my moods. I put her over a couple of jumps before our last run and just kind of 'made up' with her as if we'd been arguing. I let her know that she was still my best friend and we were going to have fun. She still knocked a bar on that last run but we got through most of the course and she was her usual grinning speed freaky self. Mental note to self - if shitty with her about a run then I leave it on that course (my shittyness with her I mean) She knows why we've stopped - she gets it, not finishing the run is what she hates most, her 2nd most hated thing is me getting shitty with her - but that has a more lasting (and far more negative) effect than leaving the ring. Once I've clipped that lead back on I'm looking forward to our next run as the first of the day. So whilst the day was a total waste in terms of qualifications it was a very valuable day in terms of me figuring out a very important lesson about us.