Nonlinear Aspects of Agility

I am once again struck by the nonlinear aspects of agility, especially trialling. Wyatt and I have been working on a NADAC championship for 3 or 4 years. We’ve had the required jumpers and standard Qs for quite some time. We have 7 Chances Qs and need 6 more. We have got 3 Chances Qs a year for the past 3 years (2 this year but hope to get 1 more.) All we work on is the distance skills needed for Chances. This year, after lots of hard work, I thought they might come more quickly. We were really coming close a lot early this year. Then I got a little discouraged but got 2 in one weekend so I was once again hopeful that they might come more quickly. Of course, we have not got once since and have not really come close either. What’s going on? The course difficultly does vary but that does not seem to account for it. They go up and down in terms of difficulty. I have had some back and hip pain. Is that resulting in me running more slowly and messing Wyatt up. He is super sensitive to my handling up and downs. Is this a bigger lesson in patience. Does Wyatt not want to retire?