The opening of the black course had a lot of options. I believe I went with a send to 1 and a front cross after 2. I would have liked to have tried a lead out/front cross with another front cross after 2 also. After sending Gracie into 5, I set up on the landing side of 6. Rear crossed the weaves, Gracie did all the weaves on the second try at this. Front cross after 12 with a well timed cue as we approached the jump, then run to the other side to try to get a front cross in after 13. A lot of my classmates had to do a rear cross over 14 (there was a wall on the left side of the jump) and a lot of them struggled with it. I would have to, but I was just barely fast enough to get the front cross in.
The red course involved front crosses after the tunnel twice. For the cross after 4, I set up fairly close to the tunnel to get Gracie into the weaves and for the cross after 11, I set up further away - closer to the tire - which gave me more time to set up and gave Gracie a better idea of where we were going. I did a front cross after 2 so that I'd be on the weave side of the dog walk. Gracie skipped jump 9, probably because I was a little ahead of her and lost our connection. Gracie got the tunnel/contact discrimination just fine. I took some video of a classmate running this course with one of my Christmas presents - a camera that will work reliably!
Such a good looking border collie! She and her handler fumbled with the contact to tunnel flip (Gidget would have had trouble with this too), but otherwise a very nice run!
Gidget hasn't been in her regular agility classes for the last month. We took a Fetch It/Bring It class instead. I taught Gracie to fetch at home too. Gracie excelled at fetching enough for me to start working on teaching her to fetch a beer from the fridge. I'll get some video when we finish that trick. Gidget took a little longer to catch on but I think we've got it figured out now and she'll catch Gracie in no time. Gidget is doing better with the scent work than Gracie, she actually takes the time to sniff the PVC rods we're working with to find the right one. Gracie just picks up the first one she sees. We've got some ideas to work on this though.
Last night I helped out with a Run and Done (practice obedience trial). Not as exciting as agility but still very interesting and a lot of skill involved. Competing in obedience probably won't be an option for Gracie as the group stays could be very dangerous for her. She's capable of it in class with familiar dogs, but a new environment with new dogs wouldn't work so well. Gidget, on the other hand, could do really well at obedience! If I had the money to do it, I'd get her in more obedience classes and start trialing as soon as possible. Since I'm not rich, it may wait until Gidget has a MACH title, or at least good progress towards it.
The only way we can get a MACH title though is to fix Gidget's chute issues. Thankfully I got a chute for Christmas too! I'd been working on having Gidget go under a chair with a towel over it, but a real chute will work so much better!
Gracie's first trial is a CPE trial this Saturday! So nervous! I think that's it for agility updates for now. Happy agility!
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