This weekend we drove down to Lethbridge to support a new club hosting their first agility trial. The trial was well run and organized. Lots of awesome little perks that really make an event feel like it is well run. The venue was FABULOUS. Lots of benching under huge trees for shade made the 33°C day on Saturday bearable!
Baxter and Spencer ran in Dog Days of Summer (Nike's first trial.) Both boys did fantastic, especially considering the heat, but towards the end of the second day Baxter was slow. Usually he runs my speed and I could definitely feel that he was lagging a bit - which concerned me, because he only ran 2 things on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.
This trial though, both boys were on fire.
Spencer loved it here - it helped that it was a small trial and they didn't have insane off leash rules. Basically use common sense and they didn't care if the dog was off leash - so before and after runs we played with his frizzie in the shade. He was entered in 5 runs and I had a dog in all 5 runs, even in the heat. He was a little off on Gamble 1, but my handling was a little off too. Standard and Snooker he rocked it and Q'd in 33°C heat!
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| Photo Credit: Rita Barrett |
Day 2 he had a fantastic Standard and we were ON - except where I completely buggered up his weaves by stopping dead. Gamble 2 I didn't think we'd have a hope but he shocked the heck out of me and nailed it. Earning his Bronze Gamble and Versatility Bronze Award Titles. Such a good baby black dog.
Baxter obviously felt much better this trial (he was sore and had a limp tail issue 2 weeks prior to Dog Days and maybe he was just still a bit sore at that trial.) At 9.5 years he doesn't run full trials anymore, max 3 a day and no Gambles anymore. He had a perfect weekend going 6/6 and even in Jumpers on Saturday in the heat he ran pretty hard at 4.4 yps!
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| Photo Credit: Penny Norem |
His career is winding down, but he still loves playing and on Sunday morning rocked his Standard coming in 2 seconds faster than the papillon in the class with us and at 4.2 yps (which is something, considering there are 12 weaves) Love my Fluff, so full of heart!
Then my baby... so bitter sweet. Saturday morning she NAILED Gamblers - mini gamble twice, Aframe twice and held the contact. She did have DW worries, but that's due to the DW in class that has a LOT of bounce/flex. Connected and responsive. She was fantastic.
Then Jumpers I had no dog. Wouldn't take the first jump, couldn't sit for a start line and then left the ring to go bark at and freak out at the out of control dog shrieking at the warm up jumps. So we were excused from the run. Not good - the only silver lining is that she did come back to me and had zero intent on connecting with that dog. Just wanted to control the out of control barking.
Gamblers was next up on Sunday and I went FEO with a toy. Still no dog. No first jump, flanking obstacles and running past them. After she played tug for a AFrame contact I had slightly more dog and she got the final gamble with ease, but still VERY disconnected and I'll admit, disappointing. So we've got a lot to work on before I enter her in more trials - and I'm seriously considering pulling from the one we are entered this weekend.
Impulse control work, here we come!
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