Treasured Moments with my Dogs

I'm sitting at the computer after getting home from a walk with the girls.  Gracie's lying quietly by the door, waiting for her dad to come home.  Gidget is napping under the dining room table.  It's quiet and peaceful, a rare moment with high energy dogs.  Of course that moment was just ruined by someone walking by in the hall, so Gidget had to let out a bark and Gracie's now up looking for something to do.  Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.  My favorite quiet moment with Gracie happens right before I get in the shower.  When I turn the water on to warm it up, Gracie comes in the room and sits right behind me until I give her some affection.  She'll stay there as long as I'm scratching her ears, rubbing her back and head, and kissing her forehead.  After a minute I tell her I have to get in the shower now and she gets up and walks out of the room.  I'm not sure why she does this, maybe she's not sure I'll ever come out of the shower again, who knows, but it's a moment with her that I'll always remember and will miss if it were to stop.  My favorite quiet moment with Gidget usually involves laying on the couch watching a movie.  Gidget likes to snuggle up against my torso with her head resting on my arm.  It's sweet and cozy and always enjoyable.

I have favorite wild moments with the girls too.  Like when I let Gidget loose in a big field and she runs in great big circles around me.  It's great to see her so happy and enjoying herself, while also knowing I can call her back to me at anytime.  With Gracie it's less wild, but still active.  Any training with Gracie is always fun.  She just loves working so much that it's hard not to enjoy it.  There are stressful moments, but they pass and Gracie gets all happy again. 

Ok, quick class update.  I took both girls to the open weaves class but there were so many dogs there that I didn't work with Gracie much.  I only took her out once a lot of the dogs had left so she only got one chance to work on weaving.  She did better than last time.  Gidget had some nice fast weaves and of course had lots of fun.

In Gracie's jumping class we worked on serpentines.  We started with the 3 jumps in a line but angled to each other so that the dog had an obvious straight path over the jumps.  We started at a lower jump height too, making the jumping easier as we focused on a more difficult skill.  Through the class we kept straightening the jumps and eventually raised the jump height back to their normal heights.  All the dogs and handlers did really well.  It was fun to see Gracie to really well with that too.  Happy agility!