We had a lovely trial Saturday and Sunday in Goshen, NY. The site is a huge (and beautiful) horse farm, with the ring set up in their indoor riding ring. Sadie had run their once before, way back, but it was a cold and rainy day. This weekend turned out sunny and warm, but not too sunny or too warm for the most part. Just perfect agility weather. I had no voice, due to being rather ill, but enjoyed things nonetheless.
Maxwell was just in Standard both days. My goal for him was to work well near the ring, take two or three obstacles once on course, and leave the ring together. With that in mind, he was brilliant. On Saturday he took the tire jump, a bar jump, said a quick hello to the table, then ran the teeter for a perfect stopped contact. I thanked the judge and carried him to his leash, running out for a huge reward. Yay chicken!
On Sunday I had plan A (tire, teeter) and a plan B (tire, teeter, bar jump, A-frame). I would choose on-course based on his focus, and either way we ended on a contact, making him an easy catch. He decided to run plan C... the first seven obstacles. I only let him past the A-frame because he was dead-on following my cues and had relatively relaxed posture. It was only once we zipped through the chute that puppy-brain kicked in again, and he careened past jumps to eye the table. I asked him to TOUCH, and he did an about-face, ran to me, and let me carry him to his leash. Good boy!
Sadie had a beautiful Standard run on Saturday, flowing through the course and following my cues perfectly. Oh, except that bar she ticked down. The first one of the course. Drat! Sunday was worse, with her going all goofy on course. Wrong end of the tunnel! Back-jump the broad jump! Take it the right way, but diagonally! And knock over the standard! Wheeeee! So, no NA title for her this weekend.
Sadie's jumpers was quite another story. The Novice course on Saturday was nice and flowing, and she nailed it. No faults, well under time. She has a nice shiny blue ribbon and a NAJ title! That meant she moved up to Open for Sunday's run. It was a beautiful course, with many lead changes and a weaving rhythm to it. She ran like a dream. We used all rear crosses (must have been six of them) including the weave entrance. She got a single refusal at the weaves, having stuck the entrance but then seeming to get confused by the rear cross. And she was 0.1 seconds over time. That still got her first place, and her first Open leg!
Ok, technically two shiny blue ribbons, but one is for her new title
A quick pat on the back for myself: I think that was the first time I've walked a course and not just considered front vs rear crosses, but verbal vs non-verbal rear crosses. I'm finally getting skilled enough to effectively use Sadie's different responses to verbal and non-verbal cues.
I'm extremely pleased with both pups. They ran beautifully, despite me not feeling great. It can't have been easy for them to get used to my raspy, harsh voice so suddenly. And it meant I couldn't use volume to communicate urgently with them. They just kept with me, and followed my physical cues. I LOVE those dogs!
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