Time 2 Beat was up first. Man was this run pretty! She was energetic and happy! She held her 2o2o on the A-frame too! She took an extra jump when we went back to repeat the weaves (which she did perfectly on the 2nd attempt) giving us a wrong course and a NQ... but it was so pretty! She did leave the ring when we were done, but quickly realized it wasn't safe out there without me and came right back.
Next was standard. I think I started her a little too close to the first jump, not sure what else would cause her to drop that first bar. She was a lot slower this run and should have gotten a refusal at the table as she almost climbed underneath it. Good things: she got her weaves on the first try! And she held her "bottom" on the A-frame and otherwise ran clean! She also did not leave the ring this time, though she thought about it.
Last up was jumpers. It was an almost perfectly clean (though a little slow) run! We had no actual faults, but she went to say hi to a ring steward which took the 2 seconds we needed to Q. We were something like 1.9 seconds over time. She got all her weaves on the first try again! We just need to work on keeping her energy up for the whole day.
I do love trialing in La Crosse, such nice small trials! I also think Gracie is going to do better at the smaller venues over the winter than she did at Soccerblast this summer. Less stressful for both of us!
In Other News:
Gracie had a rough time in an obedience class recently. There were 5 dogs in the class and I thought all were pretty trustworthy. We lined up for stays. Gracie was on the end. I left her leash on and didn't go very far away so that I could back to her quickly if needed. Unfortunately it was needed. The dog next to her got up and went to say hi to the dog in the middle. That dog is rather skiddish about other dogs and went running off in Gracie's direction with the first one following. I had gone back to reward Gracie for staying the second the first dog had gotten up. When the two dogs came in her direction she started reacting. At this point the BC at the opposite end of the line, ran over to get everyone back in line. She came towards Gracie, so I picked Gracie up and kept turning away from the other dog until she was collected. Gracie did calm down in my arms and was happy to go back to her kennel when it was all over. I didn't make Gracie get back in the stay line-up. We did go back out and do some short, easy, fun stuff in sight of the other dogs, just not close to them. I felt bad that I couldn't have gotten her out of there faster, but am glad Gracie is so forgiving.
Gidget Update:
Gidget has another CDSP obedience trial this weekend. I'm mostly looking for a great attitude in the ring like her last trial. I'd like it if she didn't anticipate the recall this time though. Everything else can be messy as long as she is happy about it! She was sick this past week, but is feeling all better now. I'm not sure that we're as prepared as we were last time, but we'll just have to go in and do our best! I'm still thinking about getting her into a CPE agility trial to see how we're doing there. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Happy Training!
