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Sadie has come incredibly far since we started agility. It's hard to believe that we are now running fast and (mostly) clean courses so often... and we can do it outdoors! PCOTC puts on a wonderful trial, and Sadie is having a blast.
Yesterday we started off with an extremely respectable Open Jumpers run. She ran around one jump, finding something interesting to sniff. Of course she had to back-jump it to come back to me and take the bars down with her. But really, everything else was exactly what I asked for, so I can't complain.
She then had an impeccable Novice Standard course. Well, except that I thought she had cleared the final jump and threw my hands in the air in celebration. She went "What?", her hind end dropped, and the final bar went with it. 1,000% my fault. To make me feel even worse, she would have placed first for her Novice title if I hadn't messed her up! I know better than to celebrate early, but I guess this was a practical learning experience.
The final course of the day was Novice FAST. She had a solid if not especially flashy run. She happily took the send (woo hoo!) and bagged plenty of points. A refusal on the weaves, but I decided that the wasted time wasn't worth it, and we ran out for first place.
Today's first class was T2B. Like yesterday's Jumpers run, it was nearly perfect. We almost got the weaves on our first attempt, reaching about pole 11 before she popped out. And she ran with enthusiasm. So much so that she managed to run around my front cross before the last tunnel, charge behind my legs (nearly knocking me down) and race into the correct end of the tunnel anyway. She couldn't collect enough on her exit, though, so she took down the next bar. Very pleased with the run anyway.
Novice Standard was a bit of a mess today. She took down a jump (not a bar, a whole jump) so I decided to challenge her. I charged the dog-walk entrance to see if she would take it. Nope. I rear crossed the weaves. Fail. Hardly mattered though, since we'd already NQ'ed. But now I have some things to work on in class.
Open Jumpers (part 1 and part 2) today was a nice little course. I liked the flow, and thought it a good challenge. Sadie needed her two tries on the weaves, and then didn't/wouldn't/couldn't follow my front cross into the next jump. With me screaming her name, she instead took the double out ahead. Argh! Otherwise a gorgeous run.
Maxwell has been extremely good at the trial. I try to get him out and about with me between runs. He has been polite to other dogs and people, offering lots of eye contact, and generally being a very pleasant little guy. I know he wants to go out and run with the other dogs, but I just don't trust him to be aroused, off-leash, and outdoors. Yesterday he got to play a bit with a friend's BC puppy, and I put him on a long line to play fetch. Today we went for a walk along the back side of the trial area, and played fetch off-leash after most people had left for the day. So I think he's happy!
Open Jumpers sounds like she did well... practical learning experiences are all we can hope for... the rest is gravy and ribbons! ☸
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