After Perri's stressy behavior last Saturday as well as an extremely uninspired practice run in Molly's agility class on Monday night, I was trying my best to feel confident.
And we started with Wildcard. Two jumps to a tandem over the spread jump (our first wildcard). A tunnel discrimination for our second Wildcard, I let the easy end be our "A". And then the weaves. Perri got silly and I thought she would start zooming. Thank goodness for no refusals in CPE! I asked her to weave again and she hopped through them nicely, nailed our last Wildcard "B" (a pull to a tunnel instead of the bar jump in her line.) And out the ending. She ran around the last jump but thankfully returned to me without back jumping and took the jump. And not over time!
I started to feel a little more relaxed! The Jumpers course wasn't a straightforward flowy course, it asked for some handling. The first three jumps Perri came off the startline in slow motion, and did a brief stare at me after #2. (I tried to post turn. She was displeased.) I said "Don't do this, Perri!" And then we were off like a shot, a lovely fast Q of the rest of the Jumpers course and 8 seconds under SCT. (as opposed to last weekend's Jumpers course which was an allowable 2 seconds over SCT.) Perri even did a lovely pinwheel at the end, which she often finds demotivating. Good Poo!
The morning was non stop since I had Ein entered in Colors, Wildcard and Jumpers (by the way, perfect day for the boy! 3/3!) and I was working out of my car so I felt like I was back and forth out of the building over and over between course walk throughs and bringing each dog in and out. After Ein's Jumpers run I finally had time to relax a bit since we had to wait for all of the Standard levels to run through before Jackpot. I timed all of those classes and made my Jackpot plan.
And then it was time. I kept Perri sitting on my chair the entire time we were waiting to run. I worked on LAT with large trigger dogs she was worried about. I massaged her neck and scalp and ears. I "squished" her. And then we went in there and we nailed it with nearly 20 more points than we needed and 8 seconds under time. The run could not have been more perfect. She was silly and happy. When she hits the table to stop the clock her tail is wagging. That tail was wagging leaving the ring. Our run was one of mutual enjoyment. Perri felt safe and happy and she was loving the game. How very perfect.
"love, if your wings are broken
Borrow mine `til yours can open, too
`Cause I`m gonna stand by you
Even if we`re breaking down,
we can find a way to break through
Even if we can`t find heaven,
I`ll walk through Hell with you
Love, you`re not alone, `cause I`m gonna stand by you.
Congrats!!!
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