Especially factoring in that Charlie’s excellent jumping run was literally the first time he’s even seen jumps and tunnels- let alone pieced them together in a course- for nearly two months, he did amazing and I’m so freakin’ proud of him. No qualli, no wait at the beginning, but we got second for the 600 class, a plastic hedgehog squeaky thing that looks like it’s wearing makeup, and only one fault: my fault as well, since the third jump was on a nearly right angle from the second and I didn’t turn my shoulders quick enough so he kinda zooomed past it which counts as a refusal. Totally kicking myself for that; I was paranoid about the tunnel being right there and in his line of sight and kept my eyes on him too long to turn well. But the fact that I managed to get him back around and over it without him doing a wrong course and DQ’ing is a first. Normally he back jumps >.> We had a moment at the first jump before starting where he was all “OMG TUNNEL OVER THERE PLEEEEEEASE, MUM, PLEASE” and I nearly had to sit on him just to get him under control and semi focused, but he didn’t do a tunnel suck on me and the rest of the course after the slight hiccup at jump three was lovely.
So I was stoked.
Novice agility sucked out loud. Oh my gosh, it was just… crap. No other word for it. Hence why I love jumpers, don’t have much to say about agility.
Before we even could start he refused to sit still and took himself off about twelve times, then did crazy continual jumping back and forth over the first jump until he finally realised I was saying “sit, wait” and he did so. Kind of. I got a lead out to just past the first jump- which is an improvement- though I was kind of glaring at him and walking backwards to get that far ^ . ^ No contacts on the dog walk so a fault; nothing new there. But he didn’t jump off the table! Happy with that, though he was seriously twitchy through the whole count. There was a tunnel right after the weaves so he was sort of off his face with anticipation and entered in wrong side. Another fault. Weaved fine after I popped him back in the right side, got to the tunnel- yaaaaaaaay- and he was so speedy and overexcited coming out he hit the a frame hard and fast, literally leapt from halfway up the first side, didn’t touch the top at all and landed so hard at the very bottom of the second contact point he almost snapped himself in two. I nearly stopped running I was so shocked and freaked out. I just yelped, “Oh my God!” because, you know, my dog had come super close to what looked like breaking his bloody back and nearly ripped his face off trying to get his feet back under him- but a super fast running contact, which was a silver lining, not the cleanest, but fast- but he couldn’t give a toss. It’s agility, after all, and he doesn’t care so long as he can run. So he was still off doing the next jump- knocked the bar, another fault- before I could recover and luckily he’s happy to just go and go a line with distance so I didn’t get left behind for the home stretch. I think we ended up DQ’ing, actually, because of a missed jump after the a frame incident, but I really don’t know. I literally finished and walked off with my eyes all popping out of my head, and then gave Charlie a quick once over. He was tail wagging and butt wiggling and giving my kisses in my ears so I don’t think it traumatised or injured him too much :P
My instructor’s rottie cross got his groove back on for his last two runs. He’s been so mopey and lifeless since the start of December when she had to put her oldest rottie to sleep, so it was absolutely wonderful to see him actually running a course again and enjoying himself. Two friends of mine from training and trialling’s little chihuahua cross got her first open jumping qualli, which was just absolutely awesome.
Other news that came out of this afternoon’s trial is less happy and made me a bit weepy :( The same friends with the chi cross lost their beautiful kelpie on Tuesday. He had a really bad storm phobia (like to the point of trying so badly to escape and run off he ripped all the nails out of his feet a couple of months ago), they were working through it, but Tuesday evening they came home- there hadn’t been a storm predicted, didn’t even seem like there had been one but apparently it had been a dry storm with some thunder- and found him dead in his pen. The vet said he probably had a seizure he was so freaked out, which is the only consultation: at least it was quick. He wasn’t even two yet, only started trialling a few months ago and was just the sweetest dog. And my instructor’s rottie who got his groove back also has just been diagnosed with mild hip dysplasia, which is kind of the icing on a crappy cake- so on top of losing her five and a half year old dog to bone cancer barely six weeks ago, she now has to contend with that.
But it was an awesome afternoon, even with the bad news mixed in. It’s good to be able to go out and have fun and run courses in memory of some absolutely wonderful dogs that have been taken away way before their time should have been up. We’ve got another agility and jumpers trial this Saturday afternoon as well, and then later on near the end of February we’ve got our first solely games trial- second novice gamblers run, first novice snooker run. Should be a blast and a half :)
