Today was good :)
I got to see some friends from training that I haven't seen for a while because of not going to as many classes at the club as I used to, so that was lovely.
I got a distraction from counting down to Monday afternoon, which was helpful.
Charlie had a blast during the demo. It's definitely a good idea to have an extended break from obedience, because when he actually needs to perform he gives it a hundred and fifty per cent. He was such, such a good boy- our routine was super short because of handler, space and time restraints and was essentially just stays, but I had some focused heelwork and he was on the ball. Our agility was also a bit different because of lack of space, so we set up two lines of four jumps and a curved tunnel at the end of each and had little races. Charlie was kind of slow- by Charlie's standards, anyway- and I'm putting it down to the pretty warm day we had. He had two runs; first against a golden retriever called Winston (who is so cute; he jumps like Superman), and second we had a "run off" with Java, a GSD who very nearly beat Charlie. Dad wasn't impressed to hear that, haha. Joan and I had a bit of a competive streak emerge and it was awesome fun; I was really pushing Charlie for as much speed as he could give- which I don't usually have the need or desire to do- and he really kicked it up a notch. One jump in, I was putting pressure on and driving him and you could almost see his face go "Woah! Alright, let's do this".
We'll also probably be giving dock diving a bit of a shot. Angie from training has an awesome dock set up at her place and quite a few people from the club are putting their dogs through it to see how they go, so I'll organise a few things and see how that pans out. No idea how Charlie would take it, but it can't hurt to try; who knows, he might surprise me and we might have another sport to get hooked on.
And cameras. I've had a headache for three quarters of today, and trying to figure my way through deciding what DSLR camera I want to buy has been making it worse. So after a Panadol and a cup of tea with lots of honey, I'm feeling a bit more up to the task. Hopefully I'll drag dad into Camerahouse tomorrow and have a chat to some people. At the moment I'm torn between a Canon EOS 600D and a Nikon D5100. I'm definitely buying one online, though; it's between one hundred and three hundred dollars cheaper than through a store :O Insane. I'm also seriously considering a little camcorder as well if I have some of my budgeted money left over, but I'll sort out the camera first and then go from there.
It's all very exciting, my life at the moment. Lots of new things happening, lots of new projects. I bashed six stick in the ground weave poles into the yard this afternoon and am resolving to work on entries with the moose. I need to set up some tight little sequences and get him navigating them on his own as well and self regulating because I get the feeling he's relying too much on me and my handling and not being independent enough. He's just been a different dog the past week, and I'm sure it's to do with me and my new approach with not only training him but just living with him in general. He's been a lot more relaxed, a lot more engaged with what we're doing, a lot more interested in training, a lot more confident in general. It's good :)
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