Zorro NA NAJ....Open Debut...

Does it make any sense to get caught up on your blog when you are as behind as I am? I think so, and now that I have a computer that does not take forever to turn on, blogging might be a little bit easier and more regular.

Since we are in COVID-land now, there are no dog agility trials. Dream Park, which I longed to attend trials at, were our last trials for...who knows? Some days I think not until 2021, some days I think perhaps there could be trials in the summer time.

In any case, Zorro and I continued to have much success at our trials at DP. We finished Zorro's NA and NAJ titles on the same day - neither run was super beautiful but they were qualifying runs and they got the job done! I was very happy with his weaves in JWW.

We returned the next week and finished Zorro's Novice FAST title, and I had planned to take a break from FAST for a while after that. I mostly like to play FAST as an environmental acclimation ring time.

After that was Open Standard. I felt irrationally nervous. 12 weaves, the beginning of when Perri and I started to struggle (due to her injury, but still.) and Molly...well, we stayed in Open for at least a year. We earned our first AKC NQ, had a wrong course and some uncharacteristic disengagement and Zorro absolutely could not get the weave entry. I remember deciding I had done this to us with my negativity and lack of confidence. And just before our JWW run I saw a very experienced handler with her promising but still-young dog in the Excellent ring miss the weave entry. I told myself to stop being silly and trust in my dog's skills. Entry misses happen. Wrong courses happen. I fixed my brain and we got our first Open Q! I hate how close I am to all of the obstacles on this run but this is what I do when I am feeling insecure.

I remember after the trial was over I drove around just for the fun of geocaching. We drove to Delaware to re-complete my Fizzy grid with a specifically rated D/T combo geocache (since the one I had found previously had had its ratings changed.) It was just the sort of fun little adventure I love...and the sort of thing that cannot be done right now. My state has Stay at Home orders which allow for walking and hiking, and I am so grateful for that. But driving around just for the sake of geocaching is against the rules. (I say that because, common sense dictates that.)

And, onto our very last trial. I had no idea. Of course. How could I? The day before I had hiked many miles and into the night to geocache with a friend on Leap Day. (and I have now found one geocache on every day of the year.) I came home and had dinner and much drinks with friends and went to bed quite late. I was slightly hung over in the morning and a miscommunication on departure time with my trial buddy left me without time to make coffee until we arrived at the trial site. Still, I recharged well with ample amounts of black coffee and Zorro and I earned a QQ in Open. It was a fine Last Trial For a While.

Until next trial, Zorro! I don't know when that will be but I sure will treasure that day when it arrives!

Zorro Dreampark Debut Novice JWW and Standard Legs 2

This past weekend I had one of those "dreams come true" moments. My baby dog came home last summer. We have adventured together, trained together, fallen in love. I have patiently waited years. Three years. To return to one of my favorite AKC Agility trial sites: Dreampark.

The environment is tough. A three ring trial in a dirt footing horse arena. There are literal birds living in the rafters and they fly around through the day. It is noisy with dogs and people and a general din that never stops until days end. There is cat poop buried in the dirt on the edges of the ring. But I know my babydog, he could do it. My girls taught me everything that I know about environmental stress and acclimation. Zorro has natural handler focus, but that's not the whole picture. We have been working on this on every hike, every trial site visit, every walk, every outing since he has been a baby. It has been so very important to me. You get a dog with natural focus, but then you need to support and help that talent grow. Coming from erratic no-frustration-tolerance pitbull Molly, and worried about everything Perri - it was a major priority to reward and support offered focus from Zorro over the last year plus that I have known him.

I entered Zorro in Novice FAST so that he could get in the ring before we had to work on a numbered course. We ran the outside of the ring in a circle, earned 67 points in 13 seconds and Zorro's first Novice FAST leg!

Novice Standard was next. Video is below. I was a little disappointed I did not insist on 2o/2o criteria on Zorro's dog walk. He tried the "four on" on the teeter again but I asked him to meet his criteria. I don't want that slippery slope of poor contact behavior - thank you, Molly, for teaching me the importance of that! I did choose to not front cross in front of the weave poles. Not at a new trial site with a dog who is still growing his confidence on the weave poles. I did a messy turn on the flat to the pause table instead. It was fine, got the job done.

Novice JWW was next and same deal for the weaves. I opted for a turn on the flat after the weaves instead of cramming a cross in before them. A little wonky but it worked out. I am thrilled with his distance to the jump before the speed line at the end. I am trying so hard to let Zorro go do his job and not crowd obstacles. I am a work in progress! We also need a better understanding of "go on" when there is a straight row of jumps. We ran out of "go go go"s for that last jump. One refusal but that didn't take our Q away.

And we get to go back in two weeks! I am so looking forwards to that. The day with Zorro was a bit surreal for me. I have been so used to agility being about supporting my girls' mental states and the whole behavioral side of getting into the agility ring with brains semi-intact. Reactivity. Over excitement. Management.
Zorro has zero concerns in that realm. There is me, there is food, there are his toys and there is agility. Why worry about that other crap?

Brave new world for me. I am so grateful for this exciting journey we are beginning together.

December Trial Catch-Up

December was a fun month for trialing. We started the month off with a bang at a cluster at the local expo. The girl dogs got to play AKC Scent Work, and Zorro got to play Rally Novice. It was exciting to be busy with so many fun activities for the dogs, even if it meant some stressful conflicts!

Perri was only entered in Novice Containers each day and she absolutely crushed it! Not literally box-crushing though! She earned first place with super fast times both days, no cataloguing and total confidence. It was wonderful. She will need one more Q for her SCN title. The video is her first Container search of the weekend.

Not to be outdone Molly did a fabulous job in Novice Interiors with first places on both days, fast times and earned her SIN (Scentwork Interior Novice) title. She also earned her SBN (Buried Novice) title with a lackluster performance. Our Container performance is still suffering. I changed the way I was handling Molly and tried a tight leash approach. She began alerting with a look back to me. In training this was going really well until it wasn't. In the same training night she had her finest container search of all time and the literal next search was a disaster of false alerting. Of course, this night was the Wednesday before the trial. She was very conflicted in Buried (they're truly "just another container") but got the job done, and abysmal in Advanced Containers. Her better day there was Sunday, she correctly alerted on one container before doing a false alert on a different one. Ah well. Back to the drawing board. I am trying to come up with a way for Molly and I to both enjoy Container searches, with her enjoying the search and not destroying the containers. She is currently on a Container training break although it will be time to start up in the New Year. This video is her lovely Interior search on Saturday.

Zorro was able to earn his Rally Novice trial since the cluster offered two rally trials per day. How fun! He certainly enjoys heeling! Some further training is needed on the Slow Pace, he kept trying to sit. Otherwise we sailed straight through with scores of 97, 99 and 99 for his RN title. Yay! The whole weekend inspired me to enter an Obedience match and perhaps continue to work on some foundation skills for the game as the winter goes along. Zorro loves heelwork and I believe I finally have a dog who will love to play Obedience with me.

The following weekend was our training club's USDAA trial. We weren't able to play much this year. Sunday is a Starter/Advanced trial and I had a family gathering for the holidays to attend later in the day. We barely had enough time to play in the first two classes of the day as it was!

Zorro had his first USDAA measurement at 18 and 1/4" (I believe, I know it was 18 and something!) which puts him solidly in the 20" height class. We will need two more measurements, and one of them needs to be a CMJ. 

We got to play Snooker and Jumpers and I was a total anchor for poor Zorro! In Snooker I sent him on a wrong course and in Jumpers I didn't support a jump with him coming out of a tunnel. I now know he needs a little more support on the reconnection when he comes out of tunnels. Hey, I had a headache and I my attention was divided with fretting over the time I needed to leave. Whatever! He went home feeling great about himself and that's all that matters. 

And today was our final trial of 2019 - Zorro's AKC Agility debut! I admit to having quite a few moments of gratitude washing over me. I am so excited and honored to have a sound agility dog who enjoys playing the game with me. That is such a simple thing, yet it has been elusive for us between Molly's health and soundness issues and Perri's stress.

Zorro had been measured at a trial back in the fall, so we did not have to worry about that. He is a 20" dog until his final measurement when he turns two years old. This trial's format was to have all of the Novice classes at the end of the day. Our first walk through was not until after 3 and since this trial center is nearly two hours away it was great news! Novice Standard was first. Beautiful contacts and table, pinch me! We earned one refusal and I honestly think he was magnetized by the weave poles, they have such a heavy reward history. He then fails his first time but weaves nicely and then I kind of crammed him in with a late front cross for the ending. Great run all around!

JWW was a little bit of a hot mess but we got it done! Z missed his weave entry both classes today but this is his first time ever weaving at a place other than our regular training center so imma chalk it up to baby dog stuff! He was quite happy to weave nicely and I think his entries will come with more mileage.

Today's trial wrapped up our 2019 trialing year. I am so excited for what 2020 will bring for us in adventures, both trialing...fun road trips and hiking outings!

August AKC Agility

Molly and I haven't played AKC Agility since January of this year when she earned her Excellent titles. Though I don't have any titling goals in AKC anymore, I could not resist trying a new and very local to me trial site that a club was trying out for the first time. Molly and I are sort of coasting and dare I say semi retired, but we still love to get out and play and I wanted to support the club's decision to use this trial site! Molly is now in Masters, finally out of Excellent, and dropped to Preferred 16" of course.

I chose to enter FAST since I knew Molly would likely not have to weave in that course, and Standard just because the contacts break the course up and Molly loves them. She would have to weave though and after June's weave stress issues I was not sure how things would go. We have been doing light amounts of motivational weave work.

FAST was a moment of reflection for me. A month or so ago my agility instructor not too kindly pointed out that I do not focus well before my runs and then I forget the course. While I could have been embarrassed and perhaps angry with her for pointing out something that was hard to hear, I had to allow that this was very true. And I wanted to grow away from it. I have been working hard on focusing and not chit chatting before I run agility. I am not good at focusing. Not at all. Not even a little bit. But it has been helpful. The awareness and the trying. I still do stupid things, I probably always will, but it's helping. It is a process. Anyway. In FAST I was chit chatting and not focusing and so I found myself 100% not where I belonged to handle something in Molly's plan and well, it didn't go right! Regardless Molly got to run around and take obstacles and enjoy herself. Just a learning moment for me.

Standard was a bit of a clusterfluff. Ridiculous hand flailing, dog walk blowing, weave pole entry missed (but a nice recovery with no stress! that alone made me happy!), and poor handling on a backside and a turn but ... hey. We're just happy to be there??

Connection.

I keep having to pinch myself and get my head out of the clouds after Sunday's AKC agility trial with Miss Perri! Entering Perri was quite honestly something I did because I wanted to go spend the day at a favorite trial site with good friends of ours. Entering the Excellent level is completely out of the question for Perri, but fortunately you are allowed to start at Novice again if you drop your dog to Preferred. I made that decision last year, but have done exactly one AKC trial with Perri since then, and she only qualified in FAST. Regular titling classes still in play for a drop to Novice.

And Novice would be perfect. Simpler courses for us would allow me to work hard at staying connected with Perri and putting into play the changes that I need to make about myself for Perri's sake. And bonus: since we were playing AKC, she could wear a collar and eliminate all of the issues that come with equipment being put on and off of her body. Regardless, I was terrified. Perri used to absolutely adore this trial site. But last year she was incapable of doing more than a few obstacles the last time we were there, and she was obsessed with worry about a door in the back of one of the rings.

We arrived bright and early for JWW, oh the joys of Novice! We were in the "ring with the evil door", but thankfully it was early morning and there was no harsh sunlight coming in (that was the trigger the last time.) It was not long after arrival that I was walking the course and then taking Perri into the ring. I chose to do a start line stay. I focused so hard on maintaining connection, being cheerful. And we did a really really awesome job, Perri was absolutely flying and I was handling her nicely! And then we had an oops. I didn't realize until I watched my video what exactly happened. Perri has a delicate throat and if she is stressed she will either have a sneezing fit or a coughing fit. During our run I pushed a little too hard on her line and she ran for a wrong course tunnel. I called her with an upbeat tone but she knew it wasn't right and started coughing ("hackerdoodling", we call it!). And of course the weaves were the next obstacle. I decided to just forget about it and let her run out the last three jumps, a nice straight line, and she took the first one but blew past the last two. Residual stress.

I felt disappointed in my behavior and my mistake. I did feel better when I saw the video, because there was a clear cause for her behavior and a way for me to improve so that she doesn't feel this way again. I thought that the weave poles had triggered the coughing, but it was actually the error of running for the tunnel. (my fault!) Regardless, we had a phenomenal time on most of the course and I did not expect perfection!

And then it was the loooooooong wait until the end of the day for Novice Standard. Oh the joys of Novice! I was hoping that we would not have an enthusiasm crash for the second run of the day, that is a thing that could happen. The opening of the course was a two straight jump with a sharp 90 degree turn. There were lots of curvy lines of jumps. As much as the JWW course was a Perri-friendly course, the Standard one was not a confidence builder. I chose to lead out just a little bit and then tried a front cross in front of jump #2. I was not miserably late with the front cross but I could have been clearer, and Perri ran right behind me, took a wrong course jump, and headed towards the A-frame. I did not even say a word but when I turned to her, she was frozen. She looked at the Aframe and then started looking around the ring and looking at me. A staring fit. My worst effing nightmare. I tried to do the claw hands and jazz her out of it. No. Then I did another new thing I have been trying in class. Our instructor told me when she shuts down I should ask her for a nose touch or a trick, something quick and easy to make her feel successful and re-engage her with me. I've actually been doing a down and have had a lot of success with that. I've even been working downs into the start line. It's rather strange because downs used to be very unnerving for Perri, but I don't question it! I think somewhere in our fold back down nerd training and the table down value building, she has begun to enjoy the position.

I got down on the ground, real quick and talked silly talk with her and asked her to down. She bowed, she wagged her tail and she dropped and just looked into my eyes and I ran away from her and asked her to come with me. For a half second she just lay there and I thought, "Well. That's that!" But then she absolutely exploded up and did the next three jumps! (And promptly skipped the tire and the weaves but we just kept running!) Then it was the pause table and well you bet I asked her for a down again! She was flying high after that, running as fast as she is capable of, blowing her contacts and finished the whole course over a curved line finish. Whoah!! I was floored by her! It was a royal NQ (Just take note in the video of the judge signalling mad faults!) but we don't care, it was so much fun!!!!!!

I am over the moon with this girl and I'm just gonna brag that I am proud of me. I went into this year feeling absolutely powerless on how to reach Perri, feeling like it was all over. I got over feeling jaded about agility classes and found an instructor that saw exactly where I was failing Perri. I am forever grateful. If there was a single thing in my power to help this dog, I would crash into it and attack it. And I did. We did. I am so afraid of everything crashing down again on us, afraid of making too many handling mistakes and setting her back. I keep thinking "but she won't weave but she blows her contacts but but but but"...but I think everything is going to fall right into place when our confidence soars back where it belongs.

"'Scuse me while I kiss the sky!"

Molly AX AXJ!!

Today I took Molly to our first agility trial of the year to give those final AKC Excellent legs we need another "good ol college try." We have been working on our Excellent titles for an almost comical amount of time, mostly owing to our weave pole journey and playing AKC a lot less than we have in the past.

Still, every now and then I get the urge! Since last Spring Molly has been standing at needing one Standard and one JWW leg each. Spoiler alert: she nailed them both today!!!

Here is our standard run, I was struggling with pressure in the weaves and she hangs in there and keeps going for me. I also felt those dog walk blowing sparks from her, but again she chose to stay on there and get a big old Q and first in her class.....and her AX title!!

No video for JWW but I did a lot better in the weaves and of course she was feeling great about that and did some nice weaves to thank me! A lot of panting in the ring. Her walking exercise has been little to nothing due to a length cold snap in our area, and it showed. There was also gunshot in the distance and while the piano music playing loud in the car kept her happy in their, she wouldn't even poop at the trial site because she was stressed about the shooting. I am not so sure her panting in the ring wasn't in part due to residual stress.(she was relaxed inside the building since she could not hear the shooting.)

Any further AKC agility trialing that we do, Molly will move into the Preferred 16" track for Masters. She will never jump 20" again! Though Molly does 16" in every other venue we run in, it was a little bittersweet to officially say that today was her last run at her full height.

AKC Agility with Molly

Last Monday, I was happy to find I had off of work on the same day as a weekday AKC Agility trial. I thought, "why not try for the millionth time to get those last legs needed for Molly's excellent titles?" Molly earned her second Excellent Standard leg in Spring this year, shattering my perception that qualifying in AKC was simply not a thing that we did. Last qualifying score before that? 2015 in JWW! 

Of course heading into this trial I knew all of the rules: "it's all in the journey", "be grateful to step into the ring with your dog"...but by the way I sure did want to Q and get at least one of those two titles! Being relaxed is imperative for my focus, doubly so in AKC (and USDAA Masters, as I have discovered.)  I decided to welcome the challenge of dually "wanting the Q" but not overthinking about it. Spoiler alert: we NQd both runs. But I was happy with that we did. Standard was absolutely beautiful including the weaves and avoiding a tunnel trap! We got snagged up on my releasing her from the table and not checking her to stay on her line, she veered towards a tempting off course tunnel that I knew to watch. She did not go into the tunnel but pulled around the next jump and earned us a refusal. JWW she snagged our obligatory off course tunnel and had some messy weaves, but really lovely after that.

Whatever! AKC is not easy for us. There were other victories that day! Molly is still running at Regular 20" in AKC and she was beautiful at that height. I feared some of those sad signs of a senior dog forced to jump too high beyond their time, but Molly made it clear she had no issues with her full height of 20". (And if she had struggled with 20", that would have been the end of it. I refuse to embarrass my dog by ignoring her limitations.) Another factor at play is that for the last week I have been faithfully taking Molly on at least one if not two fifteen minute walks per day. By her second run when she normally gets dutiful  and into that boring consistent "getting it done" speed, she was instead running fast and with no panting. The trial building was warmer than last weekend's trial yet she was not panting or sluggish. I believe our walks are helping! I felt like she was so strong physically on Monday and with increased endurance - that alone made me so happy! 

Another issue we had success with was that there was consistent target shooting going on near this trial site throughout the day. It was in the distance but Molly heard it. I did not know what to do, as I had not brought any portable crates to keep her inside of the building with. I took my iphone, set the volume to high and put it on top of her crate and just played all of the music I have on there on repeat all day. Worked like a charm! Molly had no anxiety or shuddering over the gunshots, she couldn't hear it! I was pretty excited about this and downloaded a bunch of classical music to my iPad for Molly in the future (so she can have something a little more soothing than the eclectic mix of songs that we listen to while driving!). If the car has to be opened up as it is in the summer time, I'm not sure what we will do because the closed up car muffled the sound a lot on its own. I think the fans set on high in combination with the music right by her head could be a help.

No titles but forward progress despite that!

A Visit to Freehold! Molly CA!

Today we check off another item from Molly's "bucket list": finish CA title.   Does Molly care about a CA title when there are bags to be chased?   NO!   But it means something to me to have her efforts (ha.) honored, and Molly isn't going to turn down a chance to chase her bag!   Without a doubt, Molly  passed her third "Coursing Ability Test" and gets to add the CA (Coursing Ability) title to her name.  She even bit a big hole in the snow fencing while being rudely asked to wait her turn.    Yikes!

We also signed up for AKC's new game, the "Fast CAT.", a 100 yard straight dash that is timed.   They use electronic sensors, the same as we use on agility courses, to start and stop the time.   Molly predictably earned a qualifying round with a speed of 29.22MPH.   Yeah!    And since they were accepting Day of Show entries, and Perri has a new found love for the bag - I let Perri have a Fast CAT run as well.   Perri did not beat her older sister, but she did qualify as well with a respectable 25.6 MPH!   She was barking at the bag, and when the gate steward told her to stop barking, she stared at him for a half second and started barking at him.   Ha!   You tell him, Perri!   You can earn a title if you get a certain amount of points (based on your dog's MPH), but mostly I wanted to see what the girls' speeds would be.   Future Fast CATs remain to be seen.

And now, the lure coursing song....

Perri also got to play some agility, since there was an AKC agility trial being held on site.   This is Perri's first trial at Perferred 20" and she seemed happy about the change.   Open FAST was first and she was the only Open dog to qualify.   She did get a little silly with some short zoomies but settled down quickly and did the jump-tunnel-jump send with ease.   Thankfully, Perri does not usually take obstacles when she zooms (unlike a certain Molly I know!)   Standard was very decent, unfortunately no weaves and a bobble after that but otherwise really nice.    This is only Perri's second outdoor trial so I'm just gonna go ahead and blame it on that.    JWW Perri completely shut down after the third obstacle so we left the ring early.   I asked her to do the last two jumps and that made her tail wag so I feel like we reconnected on my terms.   When Perri gets like this, it makes me sad but it just seems to happen with AKC Agility and my mental state right now is to just stop doing AKC Agility for now.   Though I think a lot of today was that it was a new experience: outdoors.   Perri has done exactly one outdoor trial and our first (and last!) outdoor agility trial was the one before I pulled her for her injury.

Still, "Q and Blue", baby!   I see everybody on Facebook bragging about the "Q and Blue" so we get to do that today even if it is only on FAST.

 

But now for the sad news....

Molly is broken!   The lure coursing was not the cause, but it was the "straw that broke the camel's back."   I confess, over the last two weeks I have witnessed about three episodes of Molly holding her left paw up.   Each time I checked her foot, found a thorn or torn up skin and thought that was the cause.   She did it in agility class two nights ago and I started to Feel Worried, but when I got home her one toe had skin chewed up and I thought, "Well, maybe that's it." especially since she recovered quickly to a normal gait.   Weak.   Wishful thinking.

Today's lure coursing was fine, and I cooled her down very thoroughly afterwards, but when I got her out of her crate to potty, Molly was extremely lame on her left front.   I think I hoped against hope this wasn't coming, but here it was.   By some stroke of luck, there was a rehab vet at the trial working on dogs.   Molly got massaged and manipulated and evaluated.   And he pointed out the bump on Molly's left forepaw, "This is not normal."

On Molly's paws, she has arthritic deformities that the vet says he often sees in hard hitting, older agility dogs.   The tendons and ligaments suffer micro-injuries over time, the body floods the area with calcium and tries to heal and stabilize itself....and then you have this deformity on your dog's poor abused paws.   Molly is hard on her body and it is showing big time.   Molly is also very tender in her shoulder, whatever tendon is in front of the humerus/scapula, Molly was reacting big time to manipulation and massage on that area.  The vet feels it is secondary and a result of compensation because of the pain from her foot.    We have stretches to be done and I hope that helps her.   I want to set myself on fire and run screaming from shoulder issues!

My poor girl.   More health issues she does not deserve.   The vet said "a few days off", we will give it a few weeks off.    Rest, no fun, leashes - low activity to give everything a break.  I am hoping that will be the end of it, but I am not optimistic.

Pro Photos from CRC Agility Trial

A quick post to share my latest crop of beautiful pro photos from Rich Knecht Photography, from last weekend's agility show.   From my very first agility trial where Molly and I did a solid day of NQs, I said "At least she looks good doing it!" when I saw the photographer's beautiful captures of her!

Here is Perri looking gorgeous and determined over the double jump.   I am happy to have a nice photo of her, her last at 24".

And I just adore this one of Molly!   Jumping into a turn, at the take off point and looking like she is having a great time with that smile on her face.  

Four Days of Nope.

I was really excited about my four day weekend.   Four days, all three of my dogs, three different sports.   It had the makings of an amazing weekend.  And then I got my ass handed to me.

Friday was AKC Agility with Perri and it was absolutely pouring down rain and freezing.   We were indoors but I still got wet and I was still freezing.   The last time we were at this trial site, Perri shut down, so I did not know what to expect.   In standard she was an absolute clown and refused to weave.   In JWW she fixated on The Door and shut down.  Okay.

We went on an awesome five hour long hike and found some really high rated geocaches and honestly.   It was probably the best part of my weekend.   One thing is for sure, Perri is an awesome trail dog.   She stays close, she never lags or runs out of energy and she clearly enjoys herself.

Saturday was supposed to be better.   Molly was joining us for more AKC Agility!   Standard was pretty good, with good focus but no weaves.   JWW she was hot and cold in the ring so we left early to preserve motivation.   Perri will take a month off of agility trials and will be dropped to Preferred 20" in AKC.   She seems to like that jump height better all around.   Perri used to love the trial site we were at, and now it just seems to make her worry.

Molly had a "fun" day.   Wrong end of the tunnel in the FAST send, blew the dog walk to grab a wrong course tunnel in Standard and in JWW also made a beeline for a wrong course tunnel during a discrimination challenge.   I'm sure I was not clear enough to her, but Molly doesn't need much muddying of the handling to choose a tunnel over a jump.   Honestly, I had stopped expecting any Qs in AKC Agility.   It just didn't seem like something that happened for us.   So when Molly got a Standard Q last month, it sort of messed with my mind set.  No matter!   Molly was running fast and happy with decent weaves (missed entry in both classes, though.), so.   It's cool.

Sunday was Ein's turn in CDSP Obedience.   I felt really confident going into this trial.   Ein and I had worked on his rough spots from the last trial.   (To review: ticking broad jump, no down on the drop on recall, and anticipating the retrieve.)  We NQd both trials.
On my first dumbbell send I clipped Ein's nose when I gave him the hand signal to retrieve his dumbbell.   He gave me a wounded look but went out to the DB, did not retrieve it until I gave him a re-cue.   Same with the retrieve over jump.   With the Go Out, he acted like he had never ever heard of such a concept in his life.
The second trial, Ein broke his stay on the drop on recall.   I was floored.   Ein has always had rock solid stays and in nearly five years of Rally and obedience trialing he has only broken one stay and it was when he was very stressed.   Good retrieves, though I threw much shorter since we had already NQd.   The Go Out again, total confusion.

I was very shocked  by some of Ein's errors.   At first my brain started whirring: maybe we really should join a class to work on these exercises.   We do a lot of training at home and at parks or parking lots and stores, but never in a class room.   But here is the reality of it.   Ein is 12.   I don't want to amp up his training.   He loves working on exercises together and training, but at his age I don't really think it is right of me to intensify our training.   I am also starting to wonder about his eye sight.   Just this year he has started bumping into rally signs in the ring and that is something he absolutely never used to do.   And it seems like when I throw the DB too far out, he runs out after it but then loses track of it.   He runs around and around trying to find it and sometimes he does, but then he does a nervous nose touch on the DB.   I don't know.   And the Go Out, he just didn't seem to see his mark at all - just ran out a few feet and stressed.   Maybe he doesn't get the concept at all.   In brightly lit areas, though, he does not seem to struggle.  I suspect the judge's proximity was also a factor, she was standing very close.

So.   Right now I have decisions to make.   At this point, if I trial him again, it will be at our old training club.  Period.   He is familiar there, he was not stressed there in January.   In fact, he was clownishly anti-stressed!  And perhaps at 12 years old, the stress of a trial site he had never been to was a bit much.   No more new trial sites, buddy.


Now I thought surely today, our bonus trial day of Barn Hunt with Molly would be a surefire Q on at least one run!   The Barn hunt trial was outdoors on the grounds of a hotel resort.   We were entered in two rounds of Open and up for Molly's title.

Nope.  Not this weekend.

Molly would not indicate.   Then she false indicated.   Then she would not even think about sniffing the rat when I showed it to her.   Our second trial we did get one rat, but I called rat on a litter tube.   Molly gave it a good long sniff and I thought that was going to be as good as it got.   Molly had always been so reliable with her indication if I asked her about a tube.   She would not indicate on a litter tube if I asked her, and is always willing to check and indicate on a rat.   The only thing I can attribute this behavior to is the noisy construction site, complete with jackhammer and banging metal sounds, at the property neighboring the hotel resort.

So.   530 miles.   11 entries.   3 dogs.   Zero Qs.   Oof.

I'm good at rolling with the failures and accepting them.   It's not all successes and I never expect it to be!   But this was a bit embarrassing for me, I have to say.   I haven't felt this foolish since that September in 2014 when I entered Perri in Novice A and we were woefully unprepared.   Perri has developed a new, confusing and upsetting issue and we are going to work on that.  Molly was Molly in the agility ring, but her behavior in Barn Hunt really surprised me.  It is frustrating to continue fighting her noise phobia in the Barn Hunt setting and I am concerned she is developing a conditioned response due to how many times she has been shut down by gunshot or similar sounds when trying to play BH.   And with Ein, we worked hard on his problem areas but new ones came up - but now I am guilty of perhaps overlooking his age and taking advantage of his enthusiasm and not helping him respect his limitations.   It all caught me off guard.   I feel like a failure for not training my dogs well and for not assessing them properly.   Add in Perri's not so awesome nosework trial last weekend, and I'm feeling pretty low.

Right now some retail therapy feels in order (I'm thinking a set of Fit Bones!) as well as a small break from trialing to enjoy some extra hiking time and reconfigure our minds.

AKC Agility Trial of No Weave Faults

AKC Agility day.   I kept saying, "All I want is for them to weave and I will be happy."   It's true.  Nothing can ruin my day faster than non-weaving dogs!

Molly got to join us for her first full-day trial back and it was glorious.   I felt so happy to have my girl back with me!   Even when she did a bodyslam leap and crunched into my nose so hard it made my eyes water and nose bleed, I was happy.   That's my Molly!

We did FAST first and I was really happy with Molly's self control and engagement level.   She faulted the send (wrong end of the tunnel) but I was happy with her work in the ring.

Perri was up next in Excellent Standard.   As soon as we entered the ring and I unclipped the leash, I didn't have the usual amount of dog that I usually do.  Perri was just not engaged.   She put in a decent enough run, and she did weave even despite a ton of pressure that I put on her.   But she just was not herself.   Sigh.  I bounced back quicker from this - Perri was having a Perri moment and that was that.   I can't beat myself up.

Molly got a shot at the same course pretty soon after, and I guess she decided that a year and a half was a long enough Exc Standard dry spell, because she Q'd!   I'm also really excited about the weaves.   It was a good approach for her since I could reconnect with her and we could go to the weaves together - but I let her get her entry, made her "keep going signal" sound and then said "Go, Go!" which she likes as well as jogged.   She rewarded my by speeding up and weaving well!   I think I have figured out the absolute no-no for Molly in the weaves is my clapping.  I think that is her ultimate stressor.   I do it without thinking and it is very hard for me to not do that.    I am very "handsy" in general, a hand talker and a "flailer" so it's hard for me to keep track of that clapping when I'm already concentrating on everything in an agility run.   No matter, for my Moo I will try my best to actively avoid the clapping.

Both girls had to do Excellent JWW next.   No videos.   Molly had a beautiful run but was slowing down and was quite warm.   Right at the end I did a rear cross that I pushed too hard and she faltered for a second and dropped the bar.   A real heart breaker for me since Molly rarely drops bars and we had already gotten through all but two jumps of the course including the weaves.   Regardless, I was thrilled with how well she had run - especially her doing two sets of weave poles with no faults all in one day!

Perri actually ran before Molly.   It was very sad.   She took four jumps and got slower and slower until she was doing a slow trot and then walked around a jump.   This is not my girl.   I excused us and told her we were "all done" and we left the ring.   I did not want to be aversive but I could see that Perri's heart was not in that run and I was not going to make her continue.   That's not why we play agility.

It was very fortunate enough that there was a very good PT vet at the trial, seeing dogs and evaluating them and adjusting them.   I signed us up for an afternoon slot.   Perri did take a very hard hit from Molly, coming inside from the yard.   Only one dog could fit through the doorway to get in but Molly decided that she should be that dog.   She slammed Perri's back end pretty hard squeezing through and Perri stepped inside and stopped walking and yawned.   And would not eat her breakfast.   She moved well enough after that and enjoyed a three hour hike/swim outing at a local preserve afterwards.   But I was suspicious.   Sure enough the vet worked a long time on Perri, working and working on her pelvis until it finally eased back to comfort.   He said that it was "stuck".   Nothing glaring but the pelvis was definitely not right.   I hope she feels better!

I felt overall great about today.   Molly really had an awesome day, at a trial venue she has historically struggled at with overarousal stress.   She weaved.  Perri weaved.   Perri had a rough day and I am definitely so worried she is still Not Okay.   But I'm doing what I can.   It's Perri.   I had her checked and adjusted and I'm trying my very best.   We will see what this week and next weekend brings.  

Poodle Plan

I will admit that just as much as I love running agility...I equally love getting good photography of my dogs running agility!   This past weekend's trial even moreso because I had just clipped leg bracelets on Perri - a fun new grooming experiment that I am loving!   And I was excited to get some photos of her in her new haircut.   Rich Knecht Photography never disappoints!

All confidence charging up the dog walk! 

She's getting reaaaaaal close to gettin' air over the top! 

Perri has an appointment with an opthamologist next Thursday.   And each morning this week, I gave her a Composure and I truly feel as though we are seeing a difference.   I will continue this daily for a month, give it a try, along with continued behavioral training to work on her reactivity towards other dogs.

Monday was the first day.   When I got home from work I set up the weaves and we had a really fun and successful (though short!) training session alternating with snow pounce games.   I am looking forwards to the snow melting around here so we can do some more fun proofing exercises at the park.   Then agility class at our training center, no weave faulting even when I asked our instructor to stand right at the end of the weaves - and a happy poodle on the course besides that.

 Today in particular a dramatic difference was seen.   Each Wednesday, Perri spends the day at work with a good friend of ours.   Two weeks ago Perri was ill at ease in the same setting, curled in a tight ball on the office dog bed and alert barking all day long at things she would not have even noticed a month ago.   She also had a very intense reactive episode towards a young boxer on her lunch time walk.  She obsessively drank obscene amounts of water (a vet-checked nervous habit that was very severe when she first came to live with us.)

Today she lay on her side in the dog bed, relaxed.   There was no alert barking.   The obsessive drinking was diminished.   She did bark one time at a dog on her walk, but focused on our friend when her name was spoken (and was given treats for doing so - she responded to her name and ate food, great signs.)   Definitely a different, more at ease dog.  I truly believe the Composure (I doubled her dose this morning) as well as the work we have been doing at the park regarding her reactions to dogs, is helping.

We are moving forward and finding our way.   There is nothing so comforting as landing on your feet and moving forward with A Plan.  

March AKC Agility

Perri returned to AKC Agility today after over 6 months off.   As usual, things did not go as planned.   It was not a weekend with much to be posted on Facebook, not a weekend with much to brag about.

On Friday Standard was great except for a missed weave pole entry.  It was a very challenging entry and I understood why Perri had missed it.   But when I put her back in, she weaved hard and driven and popped out at the tenth pole.   I made her redo them and she did her thing where she gets in, skips a few and then continues weaving.   She finished them, and the rest of the course.   Okay.   Cool.   A bit disheartening for me though.   Nothing upsets me like weave pole issues.

In JWW we had a whole other issue.   In the back of the trial center there was a double glass door, absolutely beaming with afternoon sun.   As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be a problem.   And it was.   Over three jumps, over the triple jump and she locked eyes with that door and shut down.   She drifted around a jump.   I picked her back up and she did a very uninspired set of weave poles and then the rest of the course with no emotion.   Just duty.

Again.   Again we fall down.   Over and over again.   It's always something.   I always felt like that with Molly.    Something, some weird reason why we just can't get it together.   But come on, a bright door?  And what's with the weaves?   We were doing so good.   Perri was becoming a Normal Poodle.   And now she is once again an Abnormal Poodle.

I had a nice double shift on Saturday to get my thoughts in order and my chin up for Sunday.   Perri is Perri.   I have to accept her for who she is, I have to not beat myself up over her weird moments.   Enjoy what she has to offer and know that I have tried my absolute best with her.

Standard went well until we NQd with a perfectly understandable wrong course.   Video included, I should have verbally collected her after the tunnel but I didn't and she went back up the A-frame.  For the weave poles I vowed to not crowd her entry.  It starts well but she leaves the poles early on.   I asked her to redo them and she comes out at the tenth pole.   We sort of fall apart on the course with my late rear cross but oh well.

JWW was next and I was freaking about the opening.   I don't often do start line stays with Perri but I did so on this course and challenged myself to do two front crosses.   The opening was the hardest part of the course.   From there we have another pop out of the weaves at 10 and then I pushed her to the wrong side of the tunnel.   And she drops a bar due to a poor approach and another fall-apart at the end.   Perri rarely drops bars and becomes startled and has confidence drops when it happens, you can even hear me say "It's okay!" and cheer leading her after it happens.

I wrote almost a month ago about how Perri's reflux had worsened and she was losing her appetite, all since Molly's diagnosis.   It got worse before it got better.   Over the last week, Perri finally started to eat again.   She started to return to normal.   But it really troubled me how much Molly's health problems rocked Perri's world.   Perri absolutely could not deal with Molly and I being stressed, abnormal, or anything but strong constants in her world.   The day before the first trial I had a very emotionally charged day for non-dog related reasons.   At home that night Perri suddenly became spooked by a lamp that I have had since December.   She refused to come downstairs on the couch with me all night.  Heaping on top of everything else, Perri was attacked by an off leash dog and received a minor bite that broke the skin while we were out in the woods hiking three weeks ago.   Since then her mild fear reactivity has intensified to a concerning level.   We have been working on it and I already do see improvement within the last week, but it will be a long road back.

I feel so at a loss, in life and in the ring with my girl.   She had fun no doubt this weekend, there were a lot of awesome things to be grateful for.   But her reaction to that bright light worries me and her behavior over the last month and a half saddens me.   I have long been delaying an appointment with an opthamologist to have Perri's eyes checked - that needs to happen.   And I have even longer been avoiding some medication to help Perri regulate her stress level.   But I think it is time.   It is past time.  Even now I know I may continue to avoid that pursuit, but I am getting closer and closer.   I want my girl to have some peace.

As for the weave poles, I think they will fall into place when I resolve Perri's emotional turmoil.   If.  As ever, as always, we will try our hardest and fight our way back to that Normal Poodle state of mind that Perri achieved so briefly just two months ago.

February AKC Agility

Today Molly and I got to enjoy a day of agility trialing, very nice since tomorrow she will have her lymph node surgery.   I vowed to make it a day of all of Molly's favorite stuff.   I left Perri at home so that I could focus on Molly alone.   (Perri was not entered since she is still very challenged by the environment at this trial site, and the dirt.)

I entered FAST as our "warm up" run.  Molly was very calm and focused from the beginning of the day to the end, no craziness!   Dream Park, this trial site, is historically one of her most challenging places to run at - mostly because of the noise and volume of entries.   We usually NQ FAST because of insanity-problems but today Molly was on right from the start.    And the "send" contained not one but two tunnels.   Perfect set up for us.  Molly was the only Excellent-level dog to qualify, so now we have our first Excellent FAST leg!

We have not earned a qualifying score in AKC since 2015, so....kind of exciting!

Standard was next.   After the dog walk there was a wrong course dummy jump after the double jump, so knowing how Molly carries out far if I give her any acceleration, I stayed back and called her as soon as she was in the air.   And....she came in towards me hard and missed the next jump on the course.   Ohhhhhh well.   We continued on to enjoy a perfect run otherwise, I felt pretty disappointed in myself!

Jumpers with Weaves was NQing a lot of very talented and experienced handlers, the course had some tricky traps.   I was thinking that Molly and I probably didn't have much of a chance, and that was no way to think!   I was pushing away some personal pressure of my own.   There is a chance, a slim chance, that this run would be mine and Molly's last run ever as an agility team.   I would have loved to earn her AXJ and have a perfect, clean run.   However, we ran it ... like Team Danielle and Molly.   That's okay!   The weaves got us, then the wrong course tunnel got us and then we missed a jump.   She was running slower than normal, but in "good girl consistent mode", so the rear cross I did was too strong and she pulled in towards me.

About my remark, "our last run as an agility team."   I went into today knowing that.   Knowing that that was on the table.   Knowing that, worst case scenario, that this very well could be our last trial together.   My throat closes with emotion just to think about it.  I took her for our potty walk before JWW and had to swallow tears down.  I kissed her on the head and told her that I love her.

But, I really do doubt it!  

My mind is a maelstorm of thoughts right now.   I will be shocked if Molly's biopsy is negative.   That is the truth.   I hope so very much that it will be negative.  Molly is exhibiting a classic symptom of early stage lymphoma - a swollen lymph node with no other symptoms.   However, her bloodwork was normal.   Her behavior is normal.   These are very good signs.   Signs that make me feel like she is a good candidate for achieving a remission with chemotherapy.   There is no doubt that I will try chemotherapy for Molly if the vet feels she is a candidate and if it does not destroy her quality of life.  But I don't want to think about any of this, accept any of this, until we have biopsy results.    

If today was our last trial, it was a great last trial.  The grounds are huge at Dream Park.   Molly got to roll in and eat horse poop.   Play fetch with her chuckit ball.   Run off leash in a fenced area (not always possible at trials!) Sniff livestock and dog smells and get loved on by our agility friends.   I bought her a ridiculously over priced beef trachea to eat on the way home.  Everything a beautiful day of agility should be, and more.   I thought more than a few times today, I wish this could go on forever.   Or at least, for a little longer.   I love my girl so fiercely.    

Failing Upward

On Friday the 13th Molly and I ended our 6-month break from AKC Agility.   I felt that my handling of the weaves as well as her confidence had grown, and that we were ready.  Over last year I shook away a lot of the mental distress I brought with me to trials: the negative thinking, the hatred of Standard and the defeatist attitude.   In the last half of the year I really feel that I made huge strides in keeping away from stressing out Molly while she is weaving, to the point where she has begun to do some of her best weaving ever at trials, consistently.

Our first trial of 2016 was at this same trial center, and it was a CPE trial.   We had taken a month off to re-center, to clear up Molly's anal gland infection, and to head down the path of clearing away my anxiety demons.   This year found us back at the same trial center, but at an AKC trial.   I was once again under mental stress.    This is so frustrating for me.

Molly has a history of stressing up from the AKC environment - and I get stressed out and anticipate that behavior.   I have a history of getting Too Serious, because it is my favorite venue and the one that I feel most challenged by.   It is the venue that laid bare any and every issue that we have, the venue that refuses to let us get away with anything.  It stresses me out, and yet I love it.   Entering this weekend's trial, as well as other AKC trials I have entered this year, was a big decision for me.   I am more laid back in CPE and USDAA, and Molly responds well to that.   But that laid back attitude did not come naturally - I challenged myself again and again and worked towards that.   And now I'm ready for the next step in our journey: stop spazzing out at AKC trials!

This weekend I was fighting against myself.  Just as I was fighting against myself a year ago at that CPE trial - fighting so hard to stop from speaking negative things about Molly and I out loud.   Fighting so hard to believe in us.   This is not going to come quickly for me, but I will do it.   I did not enter Perri in this trial because I needed to just focus on one dog.   And that dog was Molly.   My wild girl who can bring out the worst in me, but who stands by my side while I weather the storm and we both walk out of it as a better team.   That's us, that's me and Molly.  

On Friday we started with Standard.    One two jumps and into the wrong end of a tunnel.   Bat out of hell blasting over a serpentine, missing a jump and nearly knocking me on the ground.   Over the Aframe and up onto the pause table for another wrong course.   Two more jumps and a wrong course tunnel.   Drop dead gorgeous weaves.    Jump run out at the end on the second to last jump.   And on our way back to the crate she tried her best to mug the "Bone Stand" (another of our AKC-specific nemesis.   A huge multi-table vendor full of every type of bone, chewie and animal body part imaginable.)  
Jumpers with Weaves was far better with another set of beautiful weaves (with a very independant entry that was hard for me to '"let go and let Molly do her job).   A wrong course jump got us, but I was really thrilled!

We went for a four mile walk, found some geocaches and spent the evening and the next at my parents' house since they live near the trial site.   When my mom and I went out on Saturday and left Molly alone in the house with just my dad, she took full advantage.   She ate all of their two cat's food. (a huge full bowl).   She ate all of their dachshund's dinner, a square of Little Cesar's dinner.   I did not know about either of these things, yet.   My mom and I suspected the wet dog food was eaten by Molly, but we were not sure.  

Sunday morning around 2am, Molly grew very restless in bed with me.   She is historically very annoying to sleep with, some nights worse than others.   She shifts around a lot, she bed hogs, she stands straight up and "flaps" her ears and then stamps all over the place until you meet her demands for comfort.    She was doing a lot of that, and softly whimpering.   When she failed to settle I thought that one of the cats was underneath the bed and Molly was beside herself.   I kept ordering her to lay down and I will admit I was getting very frustrated.   But she kept it up.   I considered going down to the couch with her to see if she could settle better, without the cat.   It never once occurred to me that Molly might have to go potty.   At that point, to my knowledge, Molly had not had anything rich to eat in excess - and Molly hates getting out of bed in the middle of the night.   More than I do!   And she had been pottied before we went up to bed.   But finally, she started shaking and panting and I seriously thought, "Is there a storm?"  Even then, my dense half asleep brain could not imagine she had to go potty.   I finally asked her, though I thought it was not at all what she wanted, if she had to go outside.   She was off the bed like a shot and hurtled down the stairs and stood panting at the door.    You have to leash your dog outside where my parents live, so there I was in my pajamas with no coat, having to pee very badly watching my poor dog who had been begging to go outside for an hour finally relieved herself of a huge amount of explosive diarrhea.    She slept very soundly until it was time to get up for the trial.  Poor Molly!   I felt so guilty for not getting her out sooner.

Molly was in good spirits in the morning.   She squeezed out a bit more diarrhea, ate her breakfast with a great appetite and had plenty of energy.   No doubt we would still go play agility with that good attitude.   She had a little bit more diarrhea at the trial site, but mostly a lot of loud farting and not much poop coming out.   Molly ran really well but popped out of the weaves on both Standard and JWW.  

Devastated doesn't even begin to cover how I feel about that.   Give us NQs, wrong course tunnels any day but weave sadness is paralyzing to me.   Of course after a few hours of licking my wounds I realize Molly's belly must not have been feeling well still, and when it came to her most stressful obstacle - that was gonna show.   I also specifically remember catching myself clapping in Standard and I have no doubt I did that in JWW.   That's a big no-no.   And I know why I did it.   We were still qualifying up until that point, and I had the dreaded Q-brain.   The clapping is pressure and it is a sound that Molly has very negative associations with when she is weaving.   I made a mistake, and I pressured her when she was struggling.   And I will make every effort not to do that again.   It feels good to have a reason after thinking it through: the diarrhea and the clapping in combination.   I hope that is all it was, not a back slide of progress.  

So, did we come roaring back to AKC successfully?   Not really.   But will we grow as a team there?   Yes, we will.   I already have more direction than I did when the weekend began.

AKC Trial, Weave Woes and Poodle OA!

Last Sunday was an AKC agility trial.   Now if you read my second-most-recent posting about our weekend-before-last CPE trial...things weren't so hot with the weave poles.   Molly had some good moments for sure but Perri and I were spinning our wheels.  I was not feeling very excited about an AKC trial.   Both dogs are in Excellent level with the exception of Perri needing one leg in Open Standard, and they need to do 12 weaves and they need to enter them correctly and stay in.   

I was bemoaning my weave problems to a good friend of mine earlier in the week, and she suggested that my way of walking next to the weaves was putting too much pressure on them.  This is absolutely true and I know it.   What about running?   I have tried running and they do pop out.   My weave handling makes me abysmally miserable.   I try so hard to not put pressure on my dogs, I have retrained my muscle memory.  I have studied videos.   Yet even when a Q is not even possible, the weaves are still a sore area.  Nothing leaves me feeling more devastated and helpless than the amount of work I put into training weave poles as well as training myself to try to handle the obstacle properly.   And we never seem to get anywhere.   I hate to be that cliche handler that says, "They do it at home so well!" But...that's us!   At home, at the park, in training...but not trials.   My inexperience and helplessness is so painful for me in this area.

My friend suggested, then, not to run...but to slow-run.   To fake-run.  It would take that spatial pressure of my body moving slowly next to them away, yet it wouldn't trigger them into popping since I would be ahead but not ZOOM! exciting! ahead.   I liked this idea because it gave me something to "do" (it's a lot easier to jog casually than to: Look Ahead!  Shoulders straight!  Don't Stare at the Dog!   Dont' look away though!)  I will try anything.   And I did.

Molly got to play Standard first and I lost her after the second obstacle to some "don't wanna collect!" zoomies.   Maybe if I had my back to the second jump she might have turned into me but...that tunnel first thing was pretty exciting!  I'm really happy with this run though!   I am getting more comfortable with my reverse spins and that handling move is an absolute game changer for Molly - she reads it so well and it is eliminating so many moments where we struggle with collection!   The weave entry she does miss but then I ask her to do it again and I get fake-running and what do you know...nice weaves!   We are onto something.

Perri was next in Open Standard.   I was happy she didn't zoom in the dirt!   I do lose her on a 180 to judge greeting/sniffing and my front cross was probably late.   Perri really struggles to collect on 180s and serpentines.   It is not often that my timing needs to be more precise than it is with Molly, but Perri really needs me to get off the prior jump and show her the next one much sooner than I do.   I had considered a reverse spin on her take off to the tire, as I did with Molly, but while Perri reads the RS very nicely...I had never tried it on the tire.   When I saw her drive and commitment to the tire during the run, I knew I should have done it.   But it was too late.   Anyway!  Thankfully Perri did not cross the plane of the jump and earn a refusal for her schmoozing!   She misses the weave entry and I am curious if I had done a "spin" after the jump-before-the-weaves if it would have collected her more and turned her tighter for a good weave entry.   In any case, I get her in and fake-run and get some nice weaves...even picking up speed at the end!

Jumpers with Weaves is usually my stronger class, but maybe I went too far with my pro-Standard thoughts!  The course walked nicely and did not seem too much of a challenge but....

Perri had one of her moody attitude switches.   She didn't want her favorite salmon treats ringside, she put in 30% effort with her tricks.  It was getting hot I should have hosed her.   I did not like the beginning of the course that it was the double spread jump straight into the weaves, I did not think that was fair to the dogs.   It actually threw quite a few good weaving large dogs off.   So it is no surprise that both of my dogs weaves were ... not good.   The whole course I struggled to get it together with Perri.   We get a wrong course, she runs around a jump.   I ignore it and continue on best as I could.   It felt like I was begging her the whole time but when I watch the video I do see that she was being a good sport.   

Molly and I don't fare much better.   The weaves are funny.   In fact, her "take off" is funny, just how she spasms when I release her!   She enters the weaves...exits....I just asked her to get back in, whatever.  Keep the stress off.   Oh look, I remember to fake run!   Then she pops the last pole but I see the exact moment she pops is when I turn to look at her and turn my shoulders into her.  Pressure.   That was good to see.   I need to not do that!  A crystal clear reminder.  Videos don't lie!

She does at least refrain from the wrong course jump and notice that front cross thing I was failing to do - what a good girl.   I think I just went in too far, babying the prior jump for just half a second too long and therefore late starting my front cross.   If I would just trust my dog's commitment...  

Anyway, it was all around a million percent better day than I anticipated.   I am very excited about the fake running experiment with the weaves, getting the pressure off of my girls so they can do their jobs in the weaves, and hopefully moving forward with confidence.

And my sweet Perri, earning her OA title.   What a bumpy road that was, full of detours.   The injury, the chute phobia.   So many almost-Qs.   So many set backs.  And while this run wasn't perfect, that's okay.   It still showed our rough spots.   The judge visiting, our struggles with 180 jump layouts, the continued work on our weaves, a slow chute but a brave chute.   We overcame a lot to get a Q next to our names on the results sheet.   We worked hard.   It might not be a run that some high level competitors would be proud of, but we accomplished something that has been very difficult for us.   We are moving forward and my girl is strong again.   Excellent, here we come.