Confidence or Hormones?

I am hoping Venus' new found speed is confidence and not caused by hormones. I think Clover is coming in season and Venus might be reacting to that.

Here's some changes Venus and I are working on. I am talking less while running her. In a straight line I am expecting her to take the obstacles in front of her unless I say otherwise.
Only doing crosses when there is a turn. Before I have put crosses where they were convinent for me. Now I am trying to plan them when a turn is the next 1-2 obstacles away. We'll see if we can get adjusted to this and work as a good fast team.

A Whole New Venus!

Ok so I have been taking some lessons with Lynne Stephens and Karen Mielke at Dog Logic. Some of the things we have been doing there have helped Venus with her confidence I think. She is now very hyped up and running fast courses. The downside is that I have to relearn how to handle this dog but it will only be a temporary thing.

I have decided that she might not get her last open leg at the Concord trial because of this. My goal is to have a happy fast but controlled dog. I will require her to keep bars up, hit her contacts, and complete all weave poles. Other than that she might run by a jump or take an off course and we will just keep going. I am going to try to plan to handle her like a fast dog that needs a bit more direction than I usually do with her.
Normally a slight turn of my body will pull Venus with me in a split second but now it is taking more than that.


Concord will be 4 days, July 2-5. Venus is in Ex A JWW and Open Std. We'll see wat happens.