Everyone's a Winner

I wanted to make sure these thoughts got their due, so here's a second post about last weekend's trial.

Sunday was the first ever trial for a classmate of mine with her Flat-Coated Retriever. She was really nervous. REALLY nervous. In class her pup is less driven that many of the other dogs, and is easily distracted by scent. If you can get him riled up he runs nicely, but she has a quiet personality. That makes it a little tougher for them to run, but they're improving all the time.

I'm sad to say I didn't get to really watch them run in the trial, since Sadie and I were very shortly after her. But from what I did see, they did a fantastic job. Yes, he wanted to go investigate the wonderful barn smells. Yes, he ran off course to wander when he got stressed. But he also had moments where he really did try to work. He took jumps, he took the contact obstacles that I saw, and they finished. Maybe not the whole course. Maybe not exactly the course that was mapped out. But they ran, and they finished.

It nearly broke my heart when I went to congratulate her after JWW. She was feeding him treats and saying "You don't deserve these." Yes, he does. And she deserved something, too. I wish I could have given her a gold star, like back in grade school, for putting in the hard work and having it pay off. They both came into a brand new environment, both were nervous, and they did a great job considering. I reminded her that Sadie had completely bailed on a course once. I hope that she was able to enjoy herself despite the disappointment. In no time they'll be picking up Q's of their own.

It wasn't the best trial for Mr. Trainer, either. I know he was disappointed to miss a few Q's, especially with his MACH dog. I still thought it was amazing to watch them run. So much more information being conveyed to the dogs, and yet run so much quieter, both physically and verbally. At least Mrs. Trainer was happy. Though she didn't get her Q in Open JWW, she was thrilled at the weave-pole performance of her little terrier.

Plus, as my classmate said, at least it wasn't our dogs who pooped in the weaves...