July 3D CPE Agility and Tandem Turn Workshop

Molly and I played CPE on Friday.   This particular trial was very bittersweet, because one of the members of the hosting club had very recently (less than a week ago!) passed away from very sudden illness.  It was decided that to honor her best, we should play agility and enjoy our dogs - it is truly what she would have wanted.

Molly and I played all five games.   We qualified in Wildcard, Colors and Snooker!   We played Jackpot and did a good opening but we got the wrong tunnel end in the Jackpot.

Standard would have been a Q but we got an off course tunnel.  It was one of those "dog lands from a jump and you have to pull them to the correct end."  I tried and failed a reverse spin.  I came out of the spin to see my dog going into the wrong end, and felt a little silly.  I'm still trying to learn different handling techniques like this that could really help Molly and I!  I think that I started too late and didn't show her any lateral motion.  Ah well.

We also gave our new Lickety Stick a try!  The sticks are a liquid treat with a roller ball to dispense the liquid.  All the dog needs to do is lick the ball and they get to enjoy the (smelly! delicious!) liquid treat.   Our agility instructor suggested this for Molly and I to put a stop to her choking on treats at trials.  Molly tried the "bacon" flavor and was insane about it, and was willing to do all of our normal ringside tricks in exchange for licks - and no reactivity episodes!


On Sunday we attended a workshop at our training club to learn the Tandem Turn.  Molly knows spin and she has some foundation work for the TT on the flat, but we had the day free and our skills could use some work!  The workshop was 3 and a half hours long but there were enough teams there that we did not feel over worked.  We practiced the TT on the flat first, and then put it into practice on four different courses.  Two courses Molly and I did well with, and two others we needed more work!  The first sequence was the toughest - getting my brain and body to do the same thing does not come naturally to me!  I was sure to praise Molly and give her her toy and really rev her up and keep her happy while I worked on my handling skills.   I wish that I had asked somebody to video!

Afterwards, I found a section of the Horse-Shoe Trail with seven geocaches waiting to be found.  It was straight up a hill to start with, but most of the trial was flat on the ridge top.  Molly and I found all seven caches, she rolled in both deer poop and some miserable rotting carcass.  Then when we got to the car she tried to get up into the front seat when she discovered that I took her crate pad out of the crate!  YUCK!  We finished our day together with a bath and she is sound asleep on the couch dreaming of poop and decomposing flesh, no doubt.