USDAA Regionals with Split

Each of my dogs continue to teach me things always!! Split and I went to USDAA Regionals in Utah this past weekend. I only took Split for two reasons: 1) Tip was seeming a little soar when I signed up the dogs and I decided not to put the mileage on her when I wasn't going to Nationals. 2) I wanted to see if I could really figure out some of the secrets to running Split since he is so much different than Tip.

This was a three day trial, most of the team events were on Friday and then regular events the next two days.

Split is such a dog of routine. He loves his people, his home, his everything. Friday he seemed to have some trouble later in the day. His head just was not with me. I tried toys to bring his focus back to me, but 20/20 hind sight I don't think this was right. He was nervous and then when I amp the excitement level he just could come back to me and be a team.

On Saturday and Sunday I used food and circle work to get him more engaged with me. This worked much better. I think that calming effect of food is what he needed.

Our runs this weekend weren't horrible. We ended up with some Q's, but in general I would say that I didn't feel like I was as skilled as I wanted to be running him. This is something that I really need to work on.