Messy C.R.A.P. with Ribbons

Right to the good part…The C.R.A.P.

C.R.A.P. is inspired by Susan Garrett.

Last week, Susan wrote on her blog about C=Continually, R= Rewarding, A=Ambiguous, P=Performances.  Since this was our first trial, there’s not a whole lot of “continually” going on, but that’s not the point.

I remember a couple months ago Susan wrote about a student of hers that sent her a video of a 1st place showing at a trial.  The student was so proud of the victory…AND Susan was there the burst the bubble.  Now personally, I believe that bubble bursting is great.  It’s messy and gross and ugly sometimes, and it’s where you find all the good stuff that makes you extraordinary.  Otherwise, we’d all just keep doing the same stuff over and over, and never care to look at why or how or what else is possible.  Also, bubble bursting isn’t always popular.  So it takes a certain love and commitment to burst someone’s bubble. 

What I got from what Susan said, that I carried with me this weekend, was it didn’t matter that she won.  It mattered what really happened on the course.  Did the dog hit her contacts?  Did she handle the way we’ve been practicing?  Did I settle on my criteria??

This weekend, in 4 runs, Lilli took 3 Q’s, 2 Firsts and 1 Second.  AND, more than anything, I saw how much work I have to do.  It’s not like I have to do the work, but I’m up to Lilli being a MACH dog and getting her Novice STD and JWW titles in 2 weekends.  I have 2 legs of STD and 1 leg of JWW.  One more weekend to go.

In another post, I’ll write about the stuff I learned this weekend specifically.  This post is about crap. Crap because we’ve been practicing for a year straight now, and I still missed simple obstacles with handling errors.  Crap because she’ll run 12 poles in practice no problem but had issue with all four of the 6-pole sets this weekend – and they were easy entries.  CRAP because we’ve been working contacts intensely – 2o2o w/nose touch – and she ran off 50% of obstacles this weekend without a stop.  On all the others, I had her stop extra long and give multiple nose touches.  I give myself a little pat for that. 

We Q’d.  For most, that’s a reason to celebrate.  For me – it’s crap.  It matters that I hold her for those nose touches.  I don’t care about the time so much.  I want her to stop – expect her to stop.  I want to see it each time without fail. I want to win, beat everyone else by a mile and look fantastic doing it.  I’m competitive.  Lilli is a very talented dog.  And I want it now!

So that’s the big lesson for me.  Perfection doesn’t just show up.  There’s a difference between a) running a course on run-through nights when you can go back and work a problem area again until you nail it and b) walking out onto a fresh course (novice or not) and having a clean, fast run.  There is a gap there.  And I’ve got work to do to close it.

Like a good student, all runs are recorded.  So we”ll review them over and over (and share them here on the blog so you all can see us) – like Tiger does, like Jordan did – maybe he still does…  These past 2 weekends, we got lots of awards and acknowledgment.  Ribbons, medals and even bidding to have litters with our dog. At the end of the day, I realized how far off I am from where I thought I was.

So back to work for us.  I’m generally not a “final thought” person.  This time though, I’ll end with something like that.  None of what we did this weekend in that trial had anything to do with Lilli’s anything.  She knows her stuff just fine.  It was all me – my nerves, changes from my usual body posture, my speed, energy, everything.  Jason said it earlier today and I think he’s right; Getting that it’s all me, that’s where being extraordinary comes from – that’s how I get to the next level, and the next.