Lance CPE trial- new titles!

Saturday

Wildcard- Q:
Lance knocks the bar on the very first jump on this first course of the weekend.  Sadly I thought about him doing that as I led out a tiny bit so maybe I saw something in the way he was balanced or how close he was, or maybe I just jinxed it.  Rest of the course went fine though and Lance had a really nice "go" without needing to check back for me and a great "out" when I failed to set him up on a nice line for a jump.  I thought he was really fast on this relatively easy course, 5.2yps.

Jumpers- Q:
This is the one game that we've moved up to play with the big boys and I thought the course was hard!  Lots of off course opportunities that many dogs took advantage of.  Lance handled really well though and we made it through the difficult section without a hitch.  A bit wide on a turn, but that's about it.  I screwed up a bit at the ending though as apparently Lance questioned whether I wanted him in the last tunnel or not.  Once I gave him a verbal he went in with a smile, but I'm not sure why he paused and stared at me.  4.8yps

Jackpot- Q:
This was our first time playing this distance game and I was relieved that it was a "non traditional" jackpot.  There were 3 challenges on the course that we could try at any time and only needed one, and enough points, to qualify.  I thought I would try all 3 just to see where we were at!  But Lance had other plans as he sadly decided he did not know how to weave at the beginning of the hardest gamble.  I wasn't really any distance away from him yet, but somehow Lance kept wrapping the onside entry and tried to enter with the first pole on his right.  It was a hard entry but I would have expected Lance to shoot past us, or at least pop out early if he wanted to make a mistake, not try to enter repeatedly on the wrong side!  Other then that though Lance did great and we did the other two gambles without a hitch to get 61ps and our CL1-S title.

Sunday

Full House- Q
Lance did really well except for the aframe.  He seemed excited to go up it but then slowed way down on the and even very briefly stopped all motion right at the yellow before he decided to jump into his down at the base.  I planned a nice course though that ended at the table exactly as the 1st whistle blew.

Snooker-Q
This was our first time doing snooker on the advanced course and I wanted to try for all 7's again :)  I even converted some others to try with me as I had a really nice plan.  But sadly I fell apart when running it.  Lance hard a hard time reading my moving front cross in the beginning but we got the first 7 and wrap the next red nicely.  But I did another cross when I shouldn't have, and wasn't planning on, and Lance rightfully went into a tunnel I was not planning on.  I was thrown off and expecting a whistle to blow so started towards the table but then quickly realized that it was a legal move so continued on to another red.  Of course I then screw up the order I wanted to do the next 7, but we finish it and make our way over to the tire.  But since I wasn't coming from my planned direction I was thrown off again and thought that we would again get whistled off after I started #2 on the closing.  This time my pause was longer as I was really confused, but finally recovered and made it through all of the closing.  Sorry Lance!

Standard- Q
The dogwalk was 2nd and lance completely bypassed it.  I know it wasn't anything I did handling wise so I'm not sure why he ran past it.  I circled around and attempt two he hopped up right away but was slow on the decent side although he did a perfect 4 on the floor.  And again on the aframe Lance crept down and then pounced into his down position.  The rest of the course was fast though and Lance did a very nice rear cross and "go" for me.  This run earned us his CL1-R title and finished up all of level 1 for us in CPE.

Overall:
We Q'd every run and got 2 new titles this weekend!  But Lance's contacts sucked and I'm not sure what to do.  He seems completely confident on them at our regular training club and even has no problem at any of the other schools we occasionally visit.  The contacts weren't rubber this weekend but seemed exactly the same as the type we usually train on.  He has also done this at the other trials, but not as bad as today.  I think it's a confidence issue but I'm not sure with what.   When training his contacts we first just ran over them, no criteria, to get him used to going at speed.  That's where we discovered this natural stride did not land him in the yellow so quickly put out hoops or bars on the floor when having him run in class :) He also has no issue turning around on the dogwalk and doesn't seem worried about the height at all.  He slowed down when first learning his 4 on the floor criteria but now seems to know what his job is and likes it in class.  I guess I'm not sure if I should worry about this or shrug it off as being a green dog and know that confidence on different equipment will com with time.