When she's good she's great......

But when she's bad....look out!

We went to the WCOTC trial this past weekend, held at the brand new B&D creekside activity center. The facility is great, perfect turf, nice equipment, crating was a little tight (mainly because people have to set up as though they're moving in for the weekend), lots of room to walk dogs outside too. We're lucky to be able to start training there too!

Saturday was just a train wreck of a day. Trial started at 8:30 with fast first, and very small entries, so we show up around 10:00 and fast is still going on, we didn't get in the ring until close to 2:00 I think and then jumpers wasn't until around 4:30 if I'm remembering correctly. Just crazy. I love agility, and really enjoy trialing, but I have limits.

first was standard, Indy was so wound at this point, she was barking her head off outside the ring and was really excited to go! weaves were the 3rd obstacle and She got almost to the end before she came out, darted right across my feet to take an off course tunnel. I could have easily stepped on her! She finished the rest of the course nicely. By the time jumpers finally came around, I think both of us were pretty much done for the day. She has never been so bad in the ring! I don't even know how many off courses she had, and she came bouncing out of the ring, obviously very proud of herself! I think that was the first time she's ever ran at a trial and got no treats at the end of her run.

Sunday was a new day, and she ran pretty much flawlessly. I wanted to make sure I didn't get there too early again, and made prefect timing, the walk though was just starting as we walked in. She ended up getting her 7th MX leg and her 3rd MXJ leg and DQ #2. Earning 1st place in both runs.

Agility induced fog

I don't know what was wrong with me last night. Just running along, fine enough and all of a sudden it was like I had no idea what i was doing, don't think I could have told you my left from my right. About the only thing I could manage was to run in a straight line. I felt really hot, (it was hot, but not HOT), like heat just radiating off my head, and this slight panic feeling.. I think mostly for my poor little dog. I felt better pretty quickly, I've had this happen in the spring when it first gets hot when I'm working in the past....just weird! I didn't eat much that day....just wasn't hungry. Low blood sugar, perhaps?

One good thing though, when Indy was younger she had this habit of shutting down/finding something better to do/sniffing/saying "hi" to everyone if I made the slightest mistake, no matter how I handled it, it was like, if I stopped for a second, she tuned out. She stayed right with me through all my bone-headed mistakes last night. Just looking at me like "what am I going to do with you?!" I'm sorry Indy, I won't let it happen again!

Just a couple of jerks

Had a few moments this past weekend, where bill and I took turns being big jerks.

First Bill pretty much told someone to STOP running their dog, retire him, PLEASE and while i agree, just a little sugar would have been nice to smooth things along. I also think it's one of those things that people need to figure out for themselves, why it's so hard for some people to see i don't know. When your dog is dragging his back feet, crossing them over each other from time to time....it's time to retire. At least from reg. AKC classes, I'm sure a tunnelers run in CPE or nadac would be fine. I don't care if they're having fun or not at a point it's just not safe. Our dogs will have fun doing almost anything we do with them.

Then on sunday it was my turn. I'm one of those really annoying people who are never 100% satisfied with how I do, I'm happy with most of my runs, but there's always something that gets me, that I want to be better, but it's just my personality and I've been this way with everything I've ever done. I've learned to just shut up say "thank you" when someone compliments a run....most of the time. Indy's jww time was good, but it was on the lower end of her avg yps, due to some wide turns, and I was deep in thought about how to improve her times consistently when someone complimented her time, to which I gave a very "meh...it was alright" comment, must learn to just up and say thank you, and keep my obsessing to myself.

Indy N Olmsted April 30-May 1st

The curse is officially broken! Indy had two Qs this weekend, with bill at the trial! Yay!

Still so many things to improve on, but coming along really nicely. Have I mentioned how much i love this dog?! She's just so much fun, and such a good traveler too, no problems at the hotel. She's just 100% about having fun all the time.

The pugs got to hang out with their aunt Danielle this weekend, which i know they love, but still it was tough leaving them behind, especially Kittie, who was following me everywhere sat. morning, she knows when it's a trial weekend and she would love to still be out there. Luckily we don't need to travel too often, there are so many local trials coming up.

0 for 4

We haven't had a weekend like this in a while! and as much fun as it would be to just blame it on the Bill curse, I think it's more the baby dog curse. A few weave poles issues; more speed than she knows to handle in one case, and a random pop out in another. A poor choice on my part, a very late blind cross...I really thought I had time, but not with Indy. She missed a jump in another run, not sure what happened, it seemed like her line was just slightly off and ran right past it without even seeing it. Oh well, you will have these weekends.

The most important thing with trialing young dogs to me is seeing them remaining focused and having fun, with lots of speed and enthusiasm, and we had that, so I'm still happy with the weekend even if we didn't get the results we would have liked!

The curse of Bill

There's been this ongoing joke that I do terrible at agility trials whenever my husband comes along. It started when Kittie was getting close to her MACh, to the point that he was pretty much banned from all trial sites, which was fine by him, he'd rather be on his bike anyway.

He's coming with me the next two weekends....can we beat the curse? I've got a pretty good feeling the curse is lifted, but we'll have to wait and see!

First QQ

Indy and I went to the mountaineer kennel club's trial this past weekend, and went clean in 3 out of 4 runs. Only NQ we had was she missed the weaves in jumpers on the first day, she was just going too fast to slow down and collect to get them...something we need to work on! I'm so happy she got her first QQ. I consider this trial the kick off to our spring/summer season because things really pick up now through the end of June locally. What a nice way to start the season!!

The pugs got to chill out at home with Bill. The weather was beautiful, so they got lots of lounging time in the back yard.