Sat. was our not so great day. Standard was up first. Gracie got the zoomies which is always a little fun and amusing, but leads to a big NQ. After greeting the judge, Gracie did do all her weaves on the first try, and she got on the table with no issues. Many other dogs got a wrong course on the way to the table. So in between the zooms the run was very nice. I did mess up the ending sending Gracie over a wrong course jump instead of into a tunnel. I think I just needed to stand up straighter. I was just trying to avoid the off course tunnel entry. Here's the video:
Our jumpers run by itself went really nicely. Gracie just missed the weave entry but got it on the second try. What made this run not such a good memory for me, but at the same time highly on Gracie's part was the singing husky. A very noisy husky was supposed to go after us, but the handler didn't pay attention to the run order and thought she was after the same dog she'd been after before. She was standing in the gate and I had to loudly ask her to move (I didn't want to get too close). She moved, but apparently not far enough away. Gracie got very upset about the husky. I was getting frazzled trying to get my treat bag off that I'd almost forgotten about and get Gracie's attention off the other dog all the while being yelled at to go in the ring. Thankfully friend Sarah was leash running and came to help us out. Not that there was much she could do at that point, but it's always good to know there's someone there to help. I finally got Gracie in the ring, still struggling to get her attention and now to get her leash off. The thought of not running her at all did occur to me, but when you're that frazzled your mind kind of gets stuck on one path and doesn't allow for much variation. Thankfully I was able to get her attention on the tunnel in front of us (you can see this moment in the video). After that neither of us thought about that husky again (well Gracie did glance at the sidelines once during the run, but opted to stay with me). Considering how upset she was I was pretty impressed by her performance. I was kind of emotional afterwards. I felt bad that I had let Gracie down like that and worried that trialing wasn't worth that stress for either of us. One thing I did take away from that run was to not try to manage these tight situations without help. I have friends/classmates that are more than willing to help... take advantage of it! I have to thank again Linda, Ann, and Rene for being Gracie's shields for the 3 runs I was smart enough to get someone to help me with, and Dawn and Sarah for guarding the gates during the run after the husky incident. Anyways, here's the video of our Sat. JWW run:
Sun. went way, way better! Jumpers was up first this time. It was a bit of a tricky course, including a backside jump! Gracie started out a little "la de da" but when she saw the straight away to the tunnel, she kicked it into gear. We had a couple wide turns at worst. It was an awesome run and Gracie earned herself 8 more MACH points!
Then we had a good wait before out Excellent Standard run. Gracie got her weaves and got on the table with only the tiniest sniff on the way (no refusal), and I didn't mess her up at all! Gracie got her very first Exc Std Q!!! First place too! See? Sun. was so much better than Sat! It was such a good day I bought myself some girl scout cookies and put my concerns from the day before aside. As long as I do everything I can to support my girlie, which includes getting help when needed, trialing is not too stressful for us. Here's the video of most of the run:
Our next trial isn't til the end of March. Gidget's got some big stuff coming up though: her first AKC agility trial in almost a year, a two day AKC obedience trial, and a teacup trial. Happy agility!
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