The Tail of Poles and Farts

"I am a super duper weaver!"

I've seen brilliance and understanding in the obstacle we call "weave". I've got video to prove that I can say "weave" and Fin will successfully complete the obstacle and move on to the next. I have video proving that difficult entries do not need to be babysat. But in the last two weeks, there has been barking and herding. A lot of back talk. One member of the team seems to think that she needs to tell the other member of the team that her handling isn't quite up to snuff.

I'm not worried. It is understandable that we will find these holes as we grow together. We are getting faster as a team and with that speed comes excitement and shall we say (hold on, I"m going to use a real technical term here) "brain farts".

I do not place blame. Both members of our team are experiencing the dreaded brain malady. I hold 50% or more of the responsibility here. I am the project manager after all, delegating tasks to my project team of "one". Her success relies on my communication. Her success relies on whether the tasks have been properly trained.

It poses the question. When are you really finished teaching and learning? Obviously for team Fish, we are far from done. Seems we need to take a step back, then reintroduce a level of excitement, get the endorphins going, raise the bar in practice, simulate competition nerves, and see if we can get some Farts in practice so we can eliminate the gas explosions during competition.

I am contemplating not going to the upcoming AKC trial. I'll see what the next two weeks show. We are not far off from having a good solid framework for weaves, but I am worried about allowing her to practice the herding/barking wacky weaves in competition and may wait till I feel we can have a solid weave performance before taking it to the "big show."

"Tell me where those weaves are...NOW!"