The wonder poodle of last weekend's trial was...not there. This training center is in a strip mall with the ring entrance in the back of the building. The entire storefront window made up the front of the ring. Perri (of course) has never seen this type of opened up ring with the exception of outdoor trials - and she was completely worried over the activity that she could see through that window. We qualified with a 194 (ugh.), but there was a lot of motion stopping. I had to re-do the Call Front sign because she was so focused on the window and I had already cued the Front twice. On the Halt-Pivot Left-Halt she did not move with me at all. So, kind of a sad time for me. We have so much confidence work to do, but we will get there.
The last class in the trial was Veterans so then it was Ein's turn!
Ein got a bit of a body slam/sandwich injury from Molly and Perri last Friday and he has been limping all week. We saw the vet on Thursday: right elbow pain, right hip pain - no stairs, no girldogs and anti inflammatory medicine. Ein is trying this best to keep all weight off his right legs. If we had been doing any other class but Veterans today, I would probably have scratched him.
Ein got a bit of a body slam/sandwich injury from Molly and Perri last Friday and he has been limping all week. We saw the vet on Thursday: right elbow pain, right hip pain - no stairs, no girldogs and anti inflammatory medicine. Ein is trying this best to keep all weight off his right legs. If we had been doing any other class but Veterans today, I would probably have scratched him.
You can see in the video that he is limping through the whole course - and at the end the judge has a little talk with me about it. Yes, I know he is limping. She just wanted to talk with me about it, but did allow that he was able to do the course and just wanted to know if this was a fresh thing or something I knew about / or was related to his age. Anyway, Einey got a qualifying score of 207 and third place for that course!
The second trial started off with Veterans, so we got to go back to back. The judge was different and so after the briefing I had a talk with her before even starting. I explained that Ein was 9 years old, I am aware of his limp and caring for it and that he is happy to work a Veterans course regardless. (and he WAS.) She had no issue allowing him to do his course in the trial. I liked this one better! I feel like he was with me more. Ein got a perfect score from this one, and this was also his 5th leg in RLVB so that meant he earned his RLVX title today! YAY!
The window bothered Ein too, but we have done a lot more together and he was able to work despite that. Will this be possible for Perri some day? I hope so.
I tried very hard to not dip my shoulders at Ein and look at him when he lagged. I tried! This is a really difficult habit for me to break. Much like the dogs - it will just take mileage and time for me to shed my bad habits and grow confident.
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