QQ #14

Woke up this morning in quite a bit of pain.  Mostly my wrists and heels.  I guess arthritis, i don’t know, but I do know it sucks getting old.  I was really wondering if I should drive up to the trial or not.  I felt like I couldn’t even walk.  Plus the forecast called for snow.  But i really wanted to go to the trial, so I packed up and headed out.  When I got to the exit to head over to Lynden, it was snowing pretty hard and sticking to the road.  I figured it would be easier at that point just to go ahead and go to the fairgrounds, hoping it would warm up and melt later in the day. 

We had an okay standard run, actually we just barely made it there on time to do the walk thru, so I was a little discombobulated, but we made it through.  Hannah had a fabulous jww run on a very difficult course. 

I was supposed to stay up in Bellingham and trial again tomorrow, but the forecast was calling for more snow and icy roads overnight, so I decided to come home.  I definately will put this trial on my list – NW Washington fairgounds is a great place for agility.

Road trip

I am traveling up to Lynden for a trial this weekend.  I was going to leave Friday afternoon, but since I would have to wait until after I drove Tyler home, I decided just to go ahead and leave first thing Saturday.  I guess it takes two hours to get up there (its just south of the Canada border). 

Started Tally in his agility foundation class.  It was good, but so cold.  The wind was come thru there more than I can ever remember.  Brrrrr! We are also finishing up his puppy manners classes, working on CGC requirements.  I guess they are having an evaluator come in during the next session, but I don’t think we will continue.  I am pretty happy with where Tally is now as far as socialization and basic manners.  He has a pretty good stay, he mostly sits for greetings.  He is starting to vocalize more, which does not make me happy, but we really haven’t worked on curbing that in class, I think it is something I will have to figure out.  If I am going to keep having shelties, I really need to figure out how to keep their barking to a minimum. 

Couple things

Tags

I posted this on fac

I posted this pic on facebook, but I didn’t mention the fact that Tally has always been somewhat interested in looking at the tv.  It kind of freaks me out, I have never had a dog that watched tv.  But the funny part is, is that whenever a dog or more specifically, barking, is on the tv, Hannah has always run around they house barking as if looking for the intruder.   Silly girl.

Speaking of Hannah, I wanted to record this weird experience from the trial the other day.  Hannah had a nice run in standard, I know it was very smooth.  I am pretty sure it looked like most all of our good runs, which is to say a very talented dog and a klutzy handler. 

Anyway, there was a couple there with shelties that I hadn’t seen before.  As I was waiting to go into JWW, I noticed them looking at us and talking, and I smiled at them.  The woman asked me, “where did you get your sheltie?”  I told her and she just kind of shook her head.  I have had people ask me before, usually accompanied by a compliment, or a request for contact info, but they just shook their head and walked away.  Weird, huh? 

QQ#13

Finally.  I had to drive Tyler to work, so I arrived at the trial very early.  They already had the standard course set up, so we got lots of time to walk that while FAST was starting.  It seemed pretty straightforward, nothing crazy.  But the tall dogs went first and it was just one thing after the other for them.  Lots of bars, lots of missed weaves, lots and lots of table refusals. 

When it was time for us to run, I walked it again and still it didn’t seem to daunting.  I felt good, not too nervous – after 6 runs in AKC with no Qs, I really did want to Q, but I was actually feeling confident.  When I started to run, I decided to just put a big smile on my face and enjoy.  Hannah gave me a great effort, and did her contacts and even held the a-frame for me.  What a nice run.

JWW was also fairly easy, but the end was a long run.  I got way behind Hannah, but luckily was able to direct her with a “go on”, which she responded to quite well.  QQ #13!!! Maybe someday we WILL get that MACH.

So much fun watching the Westminster Agility last night.  Having it run live and showing all the runs in the final was cool, even though I am sure that they would have wanted some more really good runs in there. They may want to work the format a bit so they can get more of the faster teams. 

I was really looking forward to competing again today, but it was not to be,  Woke up to about 3 inches of snow.  I was supposed to drive Tyler again, but he knows how anxious I get driving in the snow and he decided it would be best to stay home.  So I decided to bag the trial today as well.  We will be traveling to the Chuckanut trial in a couple weeks.

NO Q

Saturday, we did an AKC trial.  Olympic Kennel Club.  It was super small, because there was another AKC trial down in Ridgefield and it seemed like a lot of people opted to go there. Anyway, we were done by 9:30, so it was all good. But no Qs.  Standard was an easier course than what I expected from Robin Venema.  Unfortunately, Hannah got super hyped up coming off the table and ducked behind me.  I lost her for a minute coming up to the tunnel/dogwalk discrimination and she went on the dogwalk instead of going into the tunnel.  Dang. 

I don’t even want to think about JWW.  I knew I didn’t have a good grasp on the course going in, but I thought we could get thru.  Unfortunately, I was lost from the beginning.  Finally, I just found a line of jumps to go out.  Poor Hannah, she was trying so hard. 

The course was technical, but there were plenty of Q’s, so I don’t think it was overly difficult.  I just couldn’t make a roadmap in my head for it. 

What else?  Oh yeah, Seahawks won the Super Bowl!!! How cool is that???

I got my CPAP today, its supposed to make me think clearer, maybe no more getting lost on course!!

Oh yes, I know.  Tally starts agility class on Tuesday, February 18!!!! I can’t wait.