Foundation, Foundation, Foundation

Yesterday the boys and I headed to the cities to work through some of the foundation SS Grids with a couple of friends. 

It's been forever since I've gone back to basic jump work with either Blade or Viper and let me tell you, it showed. As a youngster I worked Viper through SS's puppy video and did quite a bit of work with her foundation grids. At the same time I worked through other aspects of jump training that adhered more to the APHS method. I can't really say which method was MORE beneficial for Da Vipe's jump training as I personally think they focus on two different aspects jumping. So for me, it's like trying to compare apples to oranges. 

Even though it's been a while, Viper nailed all of the grids that we worked on and even bounce jumped just shy of 17 feet which is a personal best for him. I was really impressed that even though we've taken a hiatus from jump work he settled into it very well and was comfortable completing the grids.

Blade on the other hand, has always struggled with SS Grids and that too showed. Even though all of the grids that we tried were just from her Foundations video, there is lack of confidence from Blade at being able to read varying distances several obstacles out. Which results in massive amounts of stutter stepping and flinging. The more he does them the better his jumping is and I know that...

But lets be real, grids are BORING.

Seriously.

I'd rather stick needles in my eyes...

Ok, that may be a tad dramatic (or a little bigger than a tad) but you get the point.

I might have to endure some needle sticking in order to consistently expose Blade to grids, but doing it with a couple of friends did make it pretty fun. So I might just have to find perma-grid friends to help endure grid work right along side of me ;)

Being able to have some down time also made it possible to puts around with the boyfriends camera and get a few shots of the dogs. Unfortunately none of the pics of da boys turned out but I did get some pretty sweet ones of my friends dogs!

Teaker Mon! Raddest blue dog I know.

Streak again.

Streak's son Dream. Second raddest blue dog I know.

Extraterrestrial.

No. He's definitely not an alien. But Vader is pretty rad too :)

Vader. What a stud.

For anyone wondering what grids are and who the heck SS is, I was referring to Susan Salo. She rode horses. Not just any horses. But show jumpers. She's got some pretty legit thoughts on how a dog's jumping form should be and how to get it there if its not. Don't be afraid to check her out. There's lots of good stuff to learn, even if you do have to endure some needles (kidding again! Promise!). Her system pretty much eliminates the handler for a while and it lets the dog focus on the task at hand. Which is pretty cool to watch if you are super anal like I am (or even if you're not!).