Gidget and I participated in a trial on a Fri. Just for something different and so we could do Time to Beat again. T2B was up first. The course looked fun and not too difficult, but there were a couple challenges that I wasn't 100% sure about how to handle. Gidget did great! She had nice high energy and was happy to run. She was really hesitant on the teeter but got through it with lots of encouraging, though I think this hurt us on the STD run. We didn't Q though because of a mistake I made. There was a bit of a serpentine where I had to send Gidget to the first jump and then get ahead of her to handle the last two jumps properly. Unfortunately Gidget wasn't committed to that first jump when I moved away and she came with and took the second jump. Bummer, one wrong course for us. Here's a link to the video of the majority of the run. My awesome video person missed the very beginning, but there wasn't much exciting there, just a few jumps and the A-frame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8rG_IRXxzM&feature=digest_sat
Next up was STD. I knew we were still having chute issues but this run ended up way worse than that. Ok, not way worse, but it wasn't pretty. She didn't do the chute, which I expected and was ok with, but then she didn't do the dog walk, didn't expect that (perhaps she thought it was that weird teeter she saw earlier), then she was really uncertain about the table, finally got up but spent the whole time sniffing. She thought about doing the teeter, but changed her mind, turned around and hopped off. Finally she skipped a few weaves. She did do the A-frame nicely and all the jumps and the tunnel in between the contacts and chute. So we have some work to do if we're going to get anywhere in STD. My plan is to work on building drive for the teeter at open agility and maybe we'll even check out the foundation contacts class. I'm begging for a chute for Christmas but I've also started working on a makeshift one with a chair and a sheet. Here's our STD video, please focus on the pretty stuff and ignore all that icky stuff. Thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISDvlSa8mu4&feature=digest_sat
Finally was JWW, Gidget's favorite! It was a fun course starting with a serpentine, followed by a curve of several jumps to a tunnel, and a bunch of dizzying pinwheels in there too. After the serpentine there was a 180 where I could pull Gidget off the first jump like I did in T2B if I wasn't careful, thankfully I'd learned my lesson earlier and stayed there to support Gidget over that jump before moving for a front cross after the second jump. I think a wide turn or two was our worst error on this course. I love that Gidget so enjoys jumpers courses. We got a 1st place Q! Here's the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97FqQE6qTeM&feature=digest_sat
Gidget's now taking a break from her regular agility classes (we'll still do some open ring time stuff) to take a Fetch It/Bring It class just for fun. Our next trial isn't til the end of Jan. so we've got some time to work on the glitches. Gracie's first trial will hopefully be the first full weekend in Jan. We're going to check out CPE in hopes that that trial will be less stress on us both. Happy agility!
