Gracie and I competed in another CPE trial on Sat. Gracie was awesome! Adding tricks while waiting and at the start line changed her start line attitude completely! She sat, watched me, and was ready to go. The stress she used to display at the start line at trials (and sometimes at class) was almost all gone! Wildcard was up first. I didn't get a course map until after I walked it so I was rather confused about what was A and what was B. At least I knew we needed two A's and a B. The first choice was the dog walk (B) or a tunnel and a tire (A). It was a contact/tunnel discrimination and I wasn't sure if Gracie would do it, but she did! She followed me perfectly to the tunnel. The next choice was a double jump that was nicely lined up in the curve of jumps (B) or a single jump that would have involved a front cross or pull to get to (A). I had Gracie do the B jump thinking it was an A (you would think the easier path would be an A right? nope). Actually all the A's were more difficult than the B's, that doesn't make sense to me. Anyways, after that choice Gracie went around a jump to go take the A-frame which was the B option of the last choice (A was a tunnel parallel to the A-frame). I called her back to do the jump she missed and continued over the A-frame and over the last couple jumps. She ran wonderfully and would have Q'd had I gotten another A obstacle in there, even with the wrong course. I was still really happy with her run! My videographer (my mom) was having an early morning brain fart and couldn't remember how to work my camera, so no video of that run, oh well.
Next up was standard. Once again nice happy behavior at the start line! This run was pretty much perfect! I almost sent her around a jump again, but stopped my motion just enough that she went "Oh, I should take that jump!" We ended up with a 1st place (she was the only 20" level 1 dog but that doesn't matter) Q and Gracie's very first title! Here's the video:
Last was jumpers. Last time we tried jumpers Gracie got the zoomies and that was that. Gracie stayed right with me this time, for most of it anyways. She took a wide turn at a pinwheel and hit the standard of a jump, knocking the bar. She totally had this "Oh crap!" look in her eyes as she was going over that jump. We pulled it back together for a minute, but a bar setter was sitting right in line with the tunnel so Gracie had to go say hi. She quickly came back to me to finish the course for another 1st place Q! Video:
I was worried that our weekend wouldn't go very well since our weekend started with a very close call. I got to my parents' house where Gidget is allowed to be off leash pretty much all the time. I put Gracie on our Flexi leash so she'd have some room to run and go potty. That's when the neighbor dog made an appearance. She was in her own yard focused on playing with her owner, but Gidget considered both dog and owner friends and wanted to go say hi. Gracie got worked up and felt she needed to follow. She ran around a tree and the Flexi snapped! I don't know why she did it, but I'm very grateful that she didn't go straight towards the other dog. She turned between the cars and the neighbor was able to put his foot on what was left of the Flexi. I caught up, apologized (he was very understanding), took the leash and headed inside. Gracie calmed down enough that the next day went well. After the trial (and a nap) Gracie even went on a walk with me, my mom, Gidget, and one of my parents' dogs. That went well and the dogs all had a good time. Just have to keep an eye out for those close calls and do my best to prevent them. Happy agility!
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