Underestimating the opponent.

Never underestimate your opponent.

Have you ever looked at a course and thought “oh shit, this is going to be wicked hard.”? Whether that statement is said with trembling fear or you say it like me, with a sick sense of excitement, I think we have all muttered something of that variety under our breaths while looking at a course map. Okay now what about the opposite? Ever looked at a course and thought “Wow, this is so simple! It’ll be easy to run clean.”? I have, and to be completely honest I do not put tons of effort towards the planning and memorization of these courses. I’m not sure if I’m the only one who gets lackadaisical when they see a circle, but I always relax when I see something that doesn’t “look” necessarily challenging. 

So tonight I was training on a very steeplechase/T2B style course. Small challenges surrounded by miles of wicked fast lines…okay well not miles, but at least a hundred yards or so. I focused on the challenges; serp this, blind here, don’t role out of the front until she’s rotated, blah blah blah…and I figured I could just take off down the straight line, decelerate turn and go around this simple circle of obstacles without a problem. Well holy fudge nuggets was I wrong or what… I’m not sure what I missed when I was walking the course that made me think that straight line into a circle was going to be “easy”, but I didn’t even attempt to handle it until I was RIGHT on top of the jumps realizing something had gone wrong. Three failed attempt later, I finally told Whimzy to go play in the pool so I could go look at the line again. I ended up shaping the straight line with a blind-rear combo and then rearing the a-frame, instead of "oh I'll just run this way and Whimzy will pick up all the jumps." Duh, Kathleen, of course that was a dumb plan.

Now this obviously isn’t the first time I’ve NQ’d in the backyard, I do that like 5 times minimum every training session. But it was interesting to realize my only real mistake was underestimating my opponent. It’s never good to over think a course and stress over how challenging it is, but the opposite is also true. No matter what dog you are running, looking at a course and judging it as simple before you really dissect the handling needed to get you through the course is equally as unwise.

Perhaps I’m the only one who has run into this issue because for some reason I’m incapable of proper course assessment, or ya know I could just be an idiot and the lesson I just got a refresher in is obvious to everyone. Who knows, but I’d like to think that from tonight I’ll remember to look at each course with an equally calm approach, with precise direct handling planned for each section no matter how "easy" it looks. 

Work every foot.