#training notes

I'm trying to really focus on the gremlin's agility training. I feel like I've been a bit aimless. But! We've worked up to jump and tunnel sequences. Trying to hammer out some kinks in her obstacle committment. And we started the puppy A-frame. I'm using targets to teach stopped contacts. Might teach running contacts later, but honestly she's springy and fast, and I don't want to deal with her jumping off early.

She's loving it though! So much enthusiasm. So ready to learn new things. No fear going up the contacts. Though that can be a problem too. She will race up the contacts and end up doing them improperly. So slow it down, teach on the puppy equipment with targets until she's super solid.

Leia is such a good little dog though. Consistently puts in great work for me. What a sweet baby. She's gonna be amazing in agility one day I think.

I have played Mercy more than any other character.  My playtime for her is over double that of the next most played character for me.

This has given me some... preliminary... opinions... and observations... as follows...

Genji and Tracer are annoying af.  Just... just...

D.Va... honey... bb... that was your ult.  You can return to your mech at any time. Please dear get back in your mech.  You squishy fuck.

Pharah gets a pass when she’s played by a competent person and allows me to use her as a form of transportation.  In fact, in such cases I fucking love Pharah.  Oh howdy boy howdy...

My favorite peeps to latch onto: Pharah and D.Va.  I’ve yet to try a good Winston but we’ll see.  Maybe Lucio.  Hmm.

Wheeeeee!

Look, squishy people: I could be actively hardcore healing you and you still might die going 1-fucking-v-5.  Especially if you have no armor, no passive heals, and 200 fucking health.  And then I’m next.  If not first.  You asses.

Tanks take time to heal up, but that’s because it takes more time to DEPLETE that health.  Unless we’re cornered or I’ve decided to pocket you or you’re critical, I’m probably going to heal someone else first (while grumbling, mind you).

If you COMMUNICATE to me your ult status and I am able to boost your ult, I will attempt to do so more times than not... especially if I know you’re going to use your ult well and could Team Kill with it.

I’m not going to chase one person all the way across the map (attempting to spawn camp I fucking guess) when everyone else is hanging back and I am the only healer.  I’m just not.  Especially when YOU lack the means to slingshot me back to the rest AND you’re attempting 1-v-6 with a goddamn Genji or Tracer.  Like...?  I guess you’ll have to just die.  *shrug*

Please have at least one character in each role regardless of the scenario.  The rest can vary on the situation, fine.  But please give me a damn tank to work with.  And maybe some defensive type to stay near the objective while the rest of your wander around to fuckall knows.

SO................. how about that payload?

You want me to heal you?  Get out of the thick of things (at the very least jump to the perimeter of it), find me, get in my line of sight (at the very least long enough for me to latch to you to safety), etc.  Think about it... you want your healer to fly into the middle of a clusterfuck needlessly? Or waste time being clueless and vulnerable while they wait for you to peep over a ledge? Guess who suddenly becomes the primary target?  Yeah.  If you don’t do these certain highly advised things or go off into certain fucking death... your are on your own.  Go find a med pack or back to spawn or something... you AMA-having ass.

“I’m not a miracle worker” indeed.

To reiterate some previous points: I, too, can die. IKR?  Wild.

Cross-Training in Aim-Reliant DPS roles has made me surprisingly decent with Mercy’s pellet gun whenever I finally get to play her again.

Coming in clutch as Mercy is by far some of the most satisfying clutch scenarios I tend to experience, even after actively trying so many other characters. Sadly, I need to get better at it.  I can most definitely improve.

Hopefully suffering through minimum one hour of play as every character will either make me realize I am not a Mercy Main or find a path to better triage... or both I don’t even fucking know, man.

No healers picked yet and YOU pick Ana?  Guess who has trust issues and is going to pick Mercy anyway?

The ChuckIt Zipflight disc seems to have the best rolling ability of the few soft/non plastic frisbees I've tried. And it does seem to be Leia's disc of preference. It has a nice thick rubber edge that allows it to go nicely for rollers. But it has a big hole in the middle, and that's not allowed as per UpDog and Toss & Fetch rules. Sooo looks like the company makes the Paraflight, which looks the same but no hole? So maybe getting that?

Leia has no interest in plastic discs and I would have to buy all new ones for her anyways because I only have full size and I think she needs puppy discs. I'm hoping to take her to the fall season for the Toss & Fetch league. I'm mostly going to keep throwing rollers until she's more confident, but she has started getting air catches as well. I think she will eventually be a dog who jumps 2 ft in the air to catch lol. She's so springy. I also have some hope that she might be able to get some decent distance, because she's pretty fast.

The disc club is having an August UpDog event which I was hoping to go to, but I wasn't sure when Leia was getting spayed, and it's full now. I'm hoping they do a fall event. I'm very keen to get back to playing UpDog. I think Leia will be good. Our team name is going to be THE REBEL ALLIANCE. Yes, in all caps lol.

First night of our new agility class yesterday was great!

I think the class is a good fit for us. Nice instructor who understands that I already have methods for training my own dog. She's already pointed out two main problems with my handling: lack of consistency and slow cues. If I want 2o2o contacts I need to commit to it more and need to have the same criteria every time. My cues need to come earlier, especially "check check" before the jump instead of during.

There's only two other people in the class. They are not miles beyond me like I feared. Handling wise we're probably around the same level, but they are only competing in Starters. They seem nice, and probably closeish to my age, and I'll probably make an effort to talk to them at trials. They are working on some of the same things I am, namely contacts. They have a mini Aussie and a Sheltie. I believe the instructor has Pointers.

There were 3 dogs in the class total. A boxer bully mix, Ramona, and a little white poodle mix, Tommy, and of course Link. Ramona is dog reactive as well, so Regina (trainer) put up a barrier and the two dogs did not make any contact for the rest of the night (except for barking and yelling at each other from the sides of the barrier, Link was worse than her). Link didn't notice Tommy until we left the training ring to take our first lap before we went into the isle to do our first training exercises (look at me and sit), but when he did notice him, he barked and lunged. I got him out of there as fast as possible though and praised him when he calmed down.

During the rest of the class, I kept Link out of sight of the other dogs and he did really well. We couldn't come up to the front of the isle to listen to Regina explain the exercises because Ramona would react since she was the demo dog, but Link would have been worse anyway. As long as Link didn't see Ramona he was okay, sometimes even if she was barking. I would just have to tell Link to leave it and walk away, and when he stopped barking and paid attention to me and sat, I rewarded him. Also, if Ramona was barking or if he got a glimpse of her or another dog and he didn't react, I threw a big treat party.