I entered Ein in two runs, Fullhouse and...Jackpot. No I could not resist trying to finish that CSL1. This is an absolutely new facility and surface type for Ein. He had never done anything like this before, and had only been to Flexi one time - just in the crating area, so I really did not know what to expect. It is dusty, the metal building and concrete floors are echoey and it is cold.
Fullhouse was first. I wanted to do the first jump to the Aframe but he refused the Frame. That's not abnormal so I encouraged him to go up it. About halfway on the upside, I had to pull away from him to get around a tunnel that was under the Frame and he bailed. He jumped off the frame and did not land right, so he landed on his face. He was completely rattled, he had dust all over his face and he came up sneezing and blinking and I felt so horrible. So stupid of me to even put him back up something he didn't want to do, it wasn't even part of the course. We could have made those points elsewhere. He did do some obstacles after the crash, but he was majorly rattled and shut down. NQ with 12 points.
Jackpot was later in the day and I was not sure how it would go after our less than stellar Ein-At-Flexi-Debut. Today Jackpot was a "traditional" Jackpot, and that means that you run obstacles and gather points in the "opening", and when the buzzer sounds you must complete the "closing" - a set of obstacles to be handled from behind a line on the ground. And this is why I did not want to do Jackpot with Ein. We don't do distance. I entered hoping for a Non Traditional Jackpot. (and I hate non traditional jackpots.)
No matter! I growled at him and blew raspberries at him on the start line and held him back by his chest and we took off! We got a bunch of points and he really picked up confidence wise as we ran! We got 31 points in the opening and needed...10. Whoah! We were pretty close to the gamble when the buzzer went off for the gamble, but Ein took his time trotting over with me and sniffing the judges feet. The 2 was easy. The 4-Jump was an actual send and we struggled with it but he really surprised me by doing it! The 6 tunnel was yet another actual send and we struggled a little bit but he did that too, as well as the 8. He did the Gamble! Unfortunately, 3 seconds overtime.
I cannot even say how proud I was of him. How surprised I was by him. He fell, quite literally, flat on his face and his confidence was shaken hard. He was at a loud and overwhelming facility. But he pulled it together and worked for me. He got two NQs on paper, but he got a major "Personal Q" today. My dog who used to be terrified to walk into a Petsmart. Look at him now.
 |
| from Glen Highland Farm 2013. Thanks Michelle! |
No comments:
Post a Comment