Monday, June 9, 2014

Worth 1000 Words: VI

Also known as Happy Chi's. I love that these 2 play together. Spencer is a little rougher with Penny, but they both obviously like playing!







Monday, June 2, 2014

Let the Count Down Begin

This weekend was an outdoor trial geared to Regionals Warm Up. We had a great time, and I feel much more ready for Regionals - which is in 2 weeks! OMG.

The venue out in Millarville was very nice, weather was nearly perfect - a little hot if anything. I've got the most spectacular farmers tan/sunburn going on.

Spencer was amazing all weekend. I entered him in a full trial for the first time since he's started trialing and I wasn't sure how fast he'd fade over the weekend/8 runs. Saturday he was fast and confident and fun. Almost the closing Gamble, Rocked it on 2 Standard courses to finish off his Master Agility Dog of Canada (MADC) title. He did very well on the Jumpers as well, coming under SCT, however I didn't support a jump enough and we missed that (my fault, not his.)

On Sunday he was maybe a little worried or a little sore. He was a little off for the first 3 runs, getting progressively slower. I was going to pull him from Jumpers, the last run of the day because he just didn't seem very happy to be playing and there really isn't much point to drag him around the ring. I decided to keep him in, but if he didn't want to run, I'd take a line of jumps and a tunnel to make it easy and fun and just leave and have a party.

Took him for a walk on his flexi before and then played with him a bunch at the warm up jumps to help warm him up for Jumpers. The wind came up pretty good before our run and between that and the extra dogs milling around the gate he was not a happy dog waiting for the Judge to be ready for us. I tried to remember all the seminar advice I've been given on him and make sure I was focusing on improving my communication and connection with him.

We pulled it off and Q'd it coming in second of three, and finishing his Master Jumpers Dog of Canada (MJDC) title too! So proud of my bad little black dog this weekend. We're really starting to come together.

Good little baby dog!

Baxter was a very good dog all weekend. Going 3/4 on Saturday - and getting the Gamble (a mini and the main!) Missed the Standard popping on the 10th pole in the weaves, but I can work on weaves at home!

He faulted his weaves only once this weekend and jumped a DW contact once on the gamble on Sun (we went right back over it and he hit it that time) so I'm pretty happy with what we've been working on.

Sunday with Steeplechase (2x weaves) we were back to being a second and a little overtime. His weaves have slowed down again and I am wondering if that is due to the surface (grass has more grip) his conditioning or if something is sore.

He would have gotten the Gamble on Sunday as well (did do a mini to a blind tunnel entrance) however, I hadn't looked at the gate list before walking and didn't notice that Baxter and Spencer were back to back. Spencer was ready, but I thought I had 4 dogs to grab Baxter. Since I didn't, I just grabbed him, didn't potty him and threw him into the ring crate and then had to run Spencer. I've built the pre-run potty break into our warm up routine and I didn't even think about missing it with Baxter. Poor guy stopped on the main gamble and peed.

At Regionals since the boys only have one dog in between their runs I will have to remember to walk them during the last 10 min of break to potty them before walk thru on the day that we are first on the line.

All in all it was a great weekend with great weather to spend with my favorite little dogs. Next up is regionals!