Agility Report

Saturday:

Pie: Jumpers- knocked first bar, bark, bark, bark, jump, off course.  Blew past me while I was standing still, attempting to cue a turn, then took several more off course jumps.  Who knew you could have so many mistakes in just the first two jumps?  Since it was the last day before Nationals, I removed her from the course.  Usually I don't do that with Pie, but I wanted to remind her she is supposed to at least try to follow directions. She was very hyper!

       Standard- Good girl who listened this time.  3rd Place.

Dottie:  Jumpers- I "had a moment" with Dottie before the weaves, causing her to miss the weave entry.  This is what my instructor calls it when you get stuck staring into your dog's eyes, and can't break your gaze away in time to tell them what to do.  Dottie is good about weave entries (not amazing, but good) but she does need to know ahead of time when it is time to weave.
        
       Standard- A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, and out of position front cross caused another missed weave entry.  The take away from this was to stick with mostly rear crosses in Tusla.  This front cross was so bad, it would be like someone asking, "How do I make a working nuclear reactor?" and someone answering, "Yes." and still expecting the person to be able to make one.  Pretty much impossible.  Sorry Dottie.

Sunday:

Fancy:  Standard- Good girl- 3rd place. 
            
              JWW- mishandled a rear cross since it probably should have been a front but I was afraid of messing up another front and she went off course.  In a situation like that, Fancy is "know" to go off course so as always, I will have to watch for her drifting off course in Tusla.

Dottie:   JWW- I was terrible- again!  I messed up the rear cross, forgot to decel, forgot to cue a turn and at one point just stood there like an idiot when I should have been moving.  But Dottie still got first, even with jerking her all over the course.  Her expression at the end seemed to say, "Really?  THAT'S how you run agility?"  Not only is it disappointing for me to run so poorly, but it is also bad for Dottie because by running all over and not cuing turns, I'm teaching her to ignore my motion cues and rely on me calling her COME!  Dottie reads motion cues well, but if I keep up this terrible handling, I'm going to un-train them and that would be sad.

         Standard- Drat, one bar so no QQ.  I think I handled a bit better here, except for being a little flustered and rushed after the table which might have lead to the bar.  Even though we didn't q, we had the fastest time of the 24s, and it wasn't too much slower than the top 20 inch dogs.  AND it was hot outside.  Not blistering but pretty warm.  Dottie might now be classified as a "fast" dog.  Wahoo!

Muffin- hung out on my lap.  :)

Not a very high Q rate but still some good parts and all the dogs had fun, as always.  Also as always, Pie thought she should have had more turns.