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!

Day at the Fairgrounds

I have been out of commision for a few weeks because my laptop stopped working. Thankfully it was an under-$100 quick fix that did not involve "your laptop is screwed, better buy a new one." and I'm back in business. (I hate blogging off of my smart phone or tablet!)

So with Molly's toe arthritis and the limited abilities of my three dog team to play agility (simply meaning, I can't do All The Venues All The Weekends! anymore.), I accepted that we would not be visiting the East Freehold Showgrounds for a trial in a long long time. Because: no more lure coursing for Molly and no more outdoor AKC Agility.

So when I saw an all breed conformation show on Memorial Day weekend offering Canine Good Citizen tests, Trick Dog tests and NADD Dock Diving at the Showgrounds, one of my favorite trial sites...I jumped on the opportunity! I had been looking for a trick dog test for my friend's young dog to test for her Novice Trick Dog title, as we had been preparing her for it. And on the flip side, my friend has been teasing me into giving Ein a third try at his Canine Good Citizen test. After all, third time's the charm? Ein has failed the CGC twice. Both girldogs have their CGCs and I attempted to test Ein twice over the years when each girl took her test. First at Molly's test where he failed any step that involved contact with a human, and secondly at Perri's test where he nearly passed except for the grooming step.

We arrived and went to check on the Dock schedule. It was around 930 in the morning and the CGC testing was running from 10-12 so plenty of time there. This was mine and Molly's first time jumping with NADD (North American Diving Dogs) and I learned that this event was being run "cluster style." This meant that if you pre-register for "Splashes", that you have no set time for your jumps. You show up in the morning and write your name into whatever time slots work for your day (to minimize conflicts.) Unfortunately for me, getting there a half hour after the event began meant that there were no available time slots until 1 or 2pm. You know, right when the Trick Dog testing was available. Yay, conflicts!

After that we walked over to the Canine Good Citizen ring and testing was already under way. I got Ein's name on the sign up sheet for his CGC as well as the Trick Dog schedule! Zoe Poodle also got signed up for her Novice Trick test. I felt a little nervous going into the test, mostly because of the Grooming step. Ein accepted a friendly stranger, sat politely for petting and grooming. The tester was very respectful and let Ein get to know her and approached him from the side and let him sniff the brush. She also asked him for his paw rather than taking it (upon my request. Ein has arthritic feet and he is happy to "shake" when asked.) Loose leash walking and walking through a crowd, no problem! Sit, Down, Stay and Come - no problem! Reacting to another dog (ignored her!) and reacting to distractions (wheel cart rolled by him and clipboard dropped, he glanced at the distractions but back at me.) And finally Supervised Separation, she kept him in the ring and I walked up through the breed rings for three minutes during that time. It is official, The Finest Einest CGC!

After the day's first victory, we returned to the car camp and put Ein in his crate for a rest. Now it was Zoe's turn for her Novice Trick Dog. Since Zoe has previously passed her Canine Good Citizen, for Novice she had to do five tricks. (If the dog has no CGC they must do 10 tricks from the Novice list.) Zoe did: Shake Paw, 4 Paws on Platform, 2 Paws Up, Get in Box and Spin. What I just love about AKC's trick dog program is how it encourages people who may never have done a competition with their dog or who are too intimidated by obedience or rally-o to get out there with their dog, train tricks and earn a title. I love it. That was exactly the case for our friend's Zoe and Mary, the Novice Trick Dog title tested them on skills we have been training and the challenge was accessible to them. Really exciting!

The dock diving schedule was running late so we decided to try to get Ein in for his Trick Dog tests.
I chose to do the Novice, Intermediate and Advanced levels with Ein. What a busy day!

Once again, I have been so excited to do AKC's Trick Dog testing with Ein since I heard of it. I did the mail in titling with Do More With Your Dog with Perri, and she has her Novice and Intermediate titles, but it was so much more appealing to me to go in person with my dog and show off the tricks.
For Novice, since Ein passed his CGC in the morning, he only had to do 5 Tricks. We did: 2 Paws Up, 4 Paws on Platform, Hold It, Shake and Hand Target. 

In Intermediate, things got a little intense! The tricks that went according to plan were: Balance treat on nose, Fetch it (dumbbell), Game (Manipulate puzzle toy or kong), Hand Signals (Sit, Down, Come), Leg Weave, Roll Over, Handlers choice "Heeling with AutoSit", Handlers Choice "Right and Left Finishes").
The tricks that did not go according to plan were that I was planning on using Ein's dumbbell carry for the "Carry" trick - but the tester would not allow me to use any object but a basket. So that was out, as Ein had not generalized his object hold to a basket. I wanted to do "Catch" instead, where the dog must catch a treat or a toy but geriatric Ein has lost his ability to catch so that was a total fail. The tester was very kind and told me to go take a break with Ein and return with a trick we could do. Ein was getting hot and there were people waiting for their turn to do their tricks so, this was a good thing.
I couldn't believe it - one trick away! I was totally flustered. Mary and I went back to the car, gave Ein some water and I petted him and told him he was a good boy. I tried to get him to carry the basket, there was lots of attempts to revive his ability to catch treats and Ein was happy to eat all 400 treats I threw at him but his skills grew no more reliable. We tried "Crawl" but with Ein's hips as they are, it is too tiring for him to go the 5 foot distance required reliably and the tester was by the book. "go Find your handler" was an appealing option but I was told we could not do that since we were in an outdoor ring. We tried to get him to jump through my arms circled as a hoop! Paws up on handlers arm! Nothing! When we were in the ring I tried to get Ein to paw target on a little musical piano, and that would have been a passing trick but Ein just kept laying down on the piano and that was Not Good Enough. I finally had the good sense to get Ein paw targeting and rewarding him like crazy for it, and then we went back into the ring and I asked him to paw target on the $%$&!!! toy piano and he did it and we finally passed the Intermediate Trick Dog. Whew! It did me a heckin concern!
Comparatively, Advanced was a breeze. Ein did Back Up, Circle Right and Left, Turn on pressure activated light (with the paw target again!), Play Dead (Bang!) and Down at a Distance of 15 feet (verbal or hand signal only.)

CGC, Novice/Intermediate/Advanced Trick dog. BOOM!

And all that remained was the blissful relaxation and no-thinking joy of Molly's dock diving! It has been almost two years since Molly has gotten to dock dive at an actual competition event, and she was cranked to the max! She was so frustrated having to wait she latched onto my leg and tried to hump me a few times. Oh my! Molly had her first two jumps with NADD, in the senior range with a 15'6 and a 15'.

So I got my Freehold showgrounds fix for the year and a well rounded day for all! Only Perri was left out of the action. I am curious about getting her up on the dock to see if she is brave enough for a leap but the day was far too busy for that. I am planning on some more NADD events later in the season and they do allow "Try Its" with a second dog on the dock, so that is going to be a very good way for Perri to get acquainted with jumping. And as far as the Trick Dog titles, I can grandfather Perri's DMWYD Intermediate title so she can go straight to testing at the Advanced level. I will look forward to a future event with her! Not that Perri minded coming along for the ride and being support staff, she is always happy in that role.

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.

The Finest Einest COMPANION DOG!

Today Ein and I earned our third qualifying score for his AKC Companion Dog title!  

I have to be honest, I enjoyed our first and second legs more.  The trial environment (four rings, louder, more distractions) seemed to make Ein more comfortable.   The place that we went to today was at a small obedience training club (one ring.  Quiet.)   There seems to be a fine line to "way too noisy" and "just the right amount of background noise/activity".  "Silent as a tomb" is actually worse than "too noisy".  Ein can be so environmental, so it is important to choose well!  

Ein was happy enough ringside.   His heel on lead was decent as was his figure 8 with a lot of happy smiles and tail wagging as he worked.   He was doing some glancing around and had one no-sit on each exercise.   That was my first indication that he was more stressed today than he was last weekend.  The Stand for Exam.  He rotated out of his stand-stay when I returned to heel position and my heart sank.   Bless the judge!   She told me right away, "It is just points off, you are okay!"  She read the mind of a Novice A handler (smile.)  It still chipped a little piece off of my heart because I knew that Ein was stressing.  I should have not scheduled our trial weekends one right after another - if I could do it again, I would have left a few weeks in between and built in some training sessions/ring times with more heavy reinforcement for his stand-stay.  (versus in the ring where he is doing a Very Hard Job for "free".)

Next was the heel free, and it often happens that if something goes "wrong", Ein's stress intensifies.   And it did.   I cued him to heel forward and he stopped for a stress sniff.   He caught up to me and did the rest of the pattern rather nicely until we had to heel towards ring side and he saw the People! looking at him.   I lost him to major stress sniffing on the about turn and felt that I needed to call him to me.   He came and we finished with a sit at halt.  Whew.

The recall came straight to finish - no front.   He did that on all three legs.   The group stays were just dandy.

We earned our Companion Dog title with a score of 175. (wince!)

But that is our journey!   It is a miracle my boy could do this and I am grateful for our time together.  I said he never could do this, and he proved me dead wrong.   This is our new work, our new challenge.  I am considering showing him again in Novice B later this year.   I would like to see how being outdoors would affect his stress levels.   And the bottom line is that my Ein is a worker, and so am I.  We both love to train.   I can see our problem areas highlighted consistently after these last three trials and I would love to try to work them out.  I would love to earn a score about 190 with him.  We will see.  This is what some people find some aggravating about Obedience, but I just love it.  The nitpicky point deductions, the desire for perfection.  Well I just see it as the opportunity to train more, and Ein sees it as an opportunity to play with me and eat cookies so...we all win.

AKC Agility Dauphin DTC October

This club's trial in October is a bit special for me because two years ago, it was mine and Molly's first time trying AKC Agility.  I remember when I looked over the rulebook I saw that you could get a title if you got three Qs in a class.  I thought that seemed pretty do-able.  You know nothing, Jon Snow.

The trial environment was like nothing Molly and I had ever seen.   In the Net was huge, bright, clean and beautiful.  There were multiple rings and the gates were low, and it was loud.  There were lots of dogs and people and there was a dull roar louder than any Molly and I had ever heard.  I took her into that Standard ring, just a little "Novice A" team stepping up for their first time, took the leash off and she ran circles around me, we tried to do the course and she jumped right over that low ring gating.   JWW was better, our only fault was a dropped bar. (Rare.  Dropped bars are very rare for Molly.)  I wanted more.

Last year at this trial site with this club, a year later, Molly NQd everything, just as she had the year before.  We were in Open this time, we needed one more leg for our OAJ and two more for the OA.  We only played in FAST and JWW because Standard was too stressful for us at the time.  But my little Perri had a perfect weekend and collected both of her Novice titles, all earned without a single NQ.  Pristine.  I remember my head being in the clouds!  Molly had tried her hardest just like always, and my Perri who I never thought would trial in agility had blown away all expectations.

This year Perri is still in Open, and she was scratched from this trial.  Her injury sidelined us earlier this year and, never fully healed, handicapped Perri's performance.  

Molly did get to play today though.  Excellent Standard I was nervous and it was indeed a bit of a trainwreck.  Broken start line stay and a wild ride the whole way through.  

JWW was a lot better.  She even got into her weaves and stayed in, and I managed to handle the weaves nicely and look ahead.  I remember being terrified to do it because we were still qualifying and I had to let go of my illusion of control and look ahead into the poles and My God What If She Popped Out?  She did not.  Personal growth points for me!  

After the weaves it was a jump to a pinwheel to a curved tunnel with a tunnel trap, you had to pull the dog (or front cross) to get into the correct end.  I thought Molly had committed to the last jump in the pinwheel and started pulling hard to get the correct tunnel entrance.   She had not committed, she pulled away from the jump and we earned a refusal and an NQ and no AXJ. 

This is our story in AKC Agility.   Standard is almost always an absolute disaster, an embarrassment.  We are lucky if we stay in the ring, finish the course, if we don't get an "E".  JWW is almost always flawless but for one little mistake (or, the weave poles go south).   Every now and then, very occasionally, something lines up just right, we get lucky, and we get a JWW Q.  Even more rarely, more impossibly, we get a Standard Q.  A Q in CPE Standard is difficult enough for us.

Since Perri's injury I have been enjoying having one dog in a trial at a time.  No conflicts.  No shoving one dog in the crate and pulling the other one out.  Plenty of time to relax before and after a run.  A lot less stress.  I posted a while ago that I wasn't going to trial them both at once to avoid all of these issues, and of course did not follow through on that.  I really do plan to try to do better.   For one thing, warm up and cool down is very crucial for my dogs.  I want to give them more than just shoving them into a crate, still hot from a run.  But more than that, I need to be realistic about which trial sites are good situations for my dogs.  In the Net is hard for Molly.  Perri adores it.  Dirt footing makes Perri insane, Molly runs awesome on it.  Wouldn't it be better to trial each dog less, but have more quality?  Is it avoidance to stay away from places where they can't be successful, or is it just playing it smart?  AKC is very hard for Molly, CPE and USDAA are better for her (quieter.)  Perri thrives on the noise and the energy, AKC is definitely her best venue.

Molly and I have nothing but CPE planned for the rest of the year.  That could change, but if it doesn't I think this is the very best place for us.

Friday and Saturday Agility Fun!

Friday and Saturday were a haze of working overnight and then loading my dogs into the car and heading out to our planned daytime agility events (rather than...oh, sleeping.  Like I should have been.)

Friday was an outdoor AKC agility trial that we just squeaked into - our entry was received on the closing date.  Going to this trial meant leaving straight from work, it meant barely making it there on time and driving in morning rush hour traffic.   Have I lost my mind?   As we got closer to the date, the nail in the coffin of my dog-insanity was hammered in.  100 percent chance of rain.   Staying home from the trial was not even a consideration!

For Standard it was really just drizzling.  A lot of people had scratched and I arrived when the Open Standard course was being built.  Molly was really over the top with her arousal and reactivity.  She was screaming pulling in, she was chattering and/or barking at other dogs.  The sounds of other dogs barking was sending her to another world.   I had to keep her ringside for a good five minutes before our run because of our distance from the ring.  This is something I do not like to do.  I didn't have a dog at the ring gate, I didn't have a dog on the start line.  She was over the top and I knew it.   Standard was a game of broken start line stay, ping pong off the contacts, zoomies and totally out of control behavior.  I have drawn a trajectory of Molly's course on the actual course map below.   Once she pounced on the teeter I thanked the judge, picked her up by her chest and carried her off the course.   Tongue lolling, shark jaws wide open in a pant and I could hear the judge clapping for us as we walked off.   More than anything, the chances of Molly leaving the ring if we continued to run were very high - and I felt it would be irresponsible to even try to keep her in there.   She was obviously far too stressed out to run - the best thing for Molly and our fellow competitors was to end the situation!

Blowin off steam.

This trial was held at Shady Brook Farm, in a field out on their property.  I put Molly in the car with her fan to relax and cool off and walked over to the little market store.  I bought some fantastic coffee and, with much difficulty, chose a lemon poppyseed muffin for breakfast.   The market store was full of locally grown produce, and home made everything.  Ice cream, wine, cheese, salad dressings, marinades, and baked goods galore.  I planned on a return visit to buy some stuff, especially ice cream, after our JWW run was over.   (I actually ended up just leaving after JWW.  At Perri's agility class that evening, our instructor told me she was "very disappointed" that I did not have any of the ice cream!   But I was literally soaked to the bone wet, cold and tired.   I could not enjoy a fun little shopping trip very much - though I do plan to return!)

Before the JWW run and YES I still refused to wear shoes!

Anyway, JWW.   The judge told us that there was a foul up with the Open JWW course, something about it being a Masters Course put onto an Open map, or something.   Honestly it was pouring rain by this point and I don't understand the course map softwares enough to understand what had happened.   The end result is that we got three jumps taken out of play so that the Open course would be a legal Open course.   Molly and I NQd this for two refusals, but it was actually a very nice run for us.  I released her over one and two, deceled and told her tunnel, then tried my best to get  back around the second jump to handle her next line.  From there she was flying so fast, and I was stuck behind her and could not catch up - and did not want to anyway.  Forward motion on my part is the number one reason for our off courses.  When she landed after 11 I called out "here!" to her because I was afraid she would jump out of the ring.  But I failed to keep my arm out to signal the next jump.  She ran straight to me and past the jump: Refusal 1.   I was again behind her for the next line and so of course when she got to the weave poles, she missed the entry.  Weaves are our weak area, so Refusal 2 and NQ.  But really - Molly doesn't even like to pee in the rain, and she ran a full agility course in, no exaggeration, constant driving rain.  In the wet and slippery mud.  I couldn't help but feel like a huge jerk, asking my dog to be out in that terrible weather with me when she could just as soon be at home on a warm couch - but Molly just said "Well, all right!" and ran with me.   We were both totally mud brown after running the course, we were soaking wet, but honestly?  It was really freaking fun!  And hey, we can do outdoors!  Hopefully, on a nice day next time though!

Also, 1 was straightened out a bit.

So, we are the last two agility trials with all NQs.  The number one thing I learned from this is that the only good run that we had out of all of those NQs, was the run where Molly came straight from her crate and into the ring.   There was no standing around ringside, no chance to think.   I need to try my best to make this happen every time.  Maybe one day I can help Molly have the tools to stand around with other dogs bumping into her, barking, running around and doing other very exciting and distracting things - but we are not there yet.    

Switching gears, on Saturday I took the girl dogs to a fun run at Flexible Flyers.  You could buy three runs for 20 bucks, so I entered Perri in two and Molly in one.

Perri was first.   She had never ran at Flexible Flyers, though I have had her there for more than a few of Molly's trials.  I thought that I would have to be encouraging, supportive and patient with her.  I thought that she would be nervous and possibly shut down.  I thought WRONG.  Something happened that has never happened before in the history of Perri: she stressed UP.  And up and up and up!   As soon as I took her leash off, before I could even get ready to jazz her up for the first jump she bolted away from me and into a tunnel (isn't she afraid of tunnels?!) and then she went on a zoomie bender to put Molly to shame.  She was taking jumps, she was flying at top speed everywhere complete with springs and long stretches of air time.  She was prancing and pouncing, she was spinning in circles.  A dust cloud was around her constantly.  And when she finally remembered my existence she came running at me barking and grabbed my arm IPO-style and tried to pull me with her!  When I tried to handle her on the actual course she just took off over the jump line so fast I had no hope of keeping up with her, and started the entire process again!   I have never, ever seen Perri behave this way!  I know it was stress, I know she was blowing off steam, but...wow.   She came back down to earth with enough time to get her on the contacts - and she was afraid of the dog walk and afraid of the teeter.  Both obstacles I was able to work her over one time and I was happy with that.  (Yes I wish the whole thing was on video, I still feel like I saw a ghost!)

Perri's second run is here in the video, and this is typical Perri.  She was pushing the "shut down" mark here, I can see that.  She was mentally exhausted from the stress of the day.   In the beginning was a really cool moment.  I never do a start line stay for Perri and really only did that because of how she behaved earlier.  She got a little "stuck", but then got up, considered some stress release of visiting our "judge", but then redirected and ran with me. I was really happy that she kept on trying and she was on an upward trend of confidence with the DW and the teeter (She absolutely froze her first time on both of them.)  I chose to not demotivate her by forcing her to do the weave poles entirely.

Molly did really good - totally nerdy but if you look at the video above we had to do the curved red tunnel (right entrance), the jump closest to the ringside area, the tire to the jump to the right of the straight tunnel and then pull back through to the closer entrance of the straight tunnel and then a 180 from out of the tunnel.   Might be nothing for some people to pull that off, but for Molly and I - I am really proud of that!  From there I just worked on her weaves and Aframe stopped contact until our time was up.   All very necessary!

They also had a nice little practice corral, with a chute, 6 weaves and a practice jump.   Molly was really committed to her weaves in there , I was happy to see it!