A class far, far away

Im going to a small one ring AKC trial next weekend.  I thought if I went to a small  trial it might decrease Miley's stress.  She seemed to do better at those kind of trials.  The bad part is the building is small. You cant sit around the ring with your dog because there is no room.  No real room to even watch people run either.  The dogs are crated in another area.  The good part is , its air conditioned.  Then I got the idea to take a class at the building. That way Miley would have been there before and maybe feel more comfortable.  The class started at 8:45.  It was 4 hours from my house.  So that meant I had to wake up at 3am.  I tried to do this last week and over slept. I never heard the alarm and woke up to the dogs barking at 6am.  So I tried again this week.  I set 3 alarms.   I did wake up.  But after driving 39 minutes, I thought "I cant do this".     But I did do it.  I made it there by 8am.  I felt like crap.  LOL.    The first class was kinda weird. Every dog was slow.  I didnt enjoy the first class and Im not sure why.  Maybe it just felt like it wasnt fun or people werent having fun.  This is just my take on things and it could have all been my feelings and nothing else.  Maybe my nerves making me feel that way.

This course map, it's from the second class I stayed for.  But we used the same course for the first class.  Do you see the #21, that was actually the #1 jump for this class. I just couldnt get the CRCD to let me use a second set of numbers for a different course.   So the first sequence was #21,then #3,4,5 and #6.   Remember when I said every dog was slow.  Well Miley ran slow.  So slow that the instructor wanted me to send her thur the chute again to see if I could speed her up.  OMG.  Running slow was contagious.  Can you imagine Miley running slow? What the heck?  But she got right on the table.  The table was up against the ring gating and where all the people were sitting and big dogs.  She didn't have any problems, except running the sequence slow.  I still cant get over that.  We did some more things in this class. Everyone seemed to be able to run all the sequences.  The first time I ran the whole course (which was just kinda a big loop), she self released on all the contacts and I didnt correct her. Im not sure why. I guess I was nervous.  So the next time, I corrected the a-frame. It took 3 times to get her to do a 2o/2o.  Ugh.  The dogwalk and the teeter she got.  The dogwalk was very bouncy and noisy but it didnt seem to bother Miley.  The lady who owns the place told me that she bought all new rubberized contacts, she just hasnt gotten them out yet.   She will have them out next week.  So Miley will be on different equipment for the trial.  Thats ok, I just wanted her in the building and working.

After the first class, a different instructor came to teach the next class. I asked if I could stay for that class and she  said I could.  This class was much more to my liking. Im really not sure what the difference was. The instructor really worked with each person to help fix the problems.  Miley was running much faster and I had and off course tunnel entrance for #20. She took the wrong end of the tunnel. I tried to run that line from #17 -20 with me on the left side of the dog.  I got to far behind and thats why we got the wrong tunnel entrance.   The instructor had me just post turn at #17, so I was on the right side of the dog.  As she  got ready to take the broad jump, call her name. I used a off arm cue and pull her then sent her to the correct tunnel entrance.  So once again, I didnt have the correct plan to run the course. Ugh.  The other thing that happened was coming out of the tunnel of # 14 to go to #15, she went off course. Well she missed the jump. She was wide.  I had to really call her to get her to come to me.  Calling Miley doesnt really work when she is running like that.  She needs to see me and see my motion to go the correct way.  And I keep standing there and calling her name. It doesnt work.  I need to remember that. IT DOESNT WORK.  She needs motion. (This is my observation not what the instructor said). So a good class and I really liked the instructor. 

By the time I got home I was exhausted.  I could barely function.  On Thursday Stephanie was scheduled to go to freshman orientation for college.  At 9pm  Wednesday night, she got a message from her friend , that was going to orientation with her, that she wasnt going.  Now Stephanie had no one to ride with.  So I had to take her.  It wasnt that I didnt want to take her but I wasnt prepared. I probably wouldnt have gone to the agility class if I knew I was doing that.  But I got up at 5am Thursday and we left by 6am.  It was a nice drive and Stephanie and I got to talk a lot. So that was nice.  Stephanie was very nervous when I left her and wasnt very pleasant.  LOL  I did some shopping, well window shopping at the outlet mall for a while. I tried to text her to make sure she was ok before I left.  She was and now is having a great time. I will head back tomorrow to pick her up.  So 20  hours of driving in 3 days. Yuk!

I took the dogs to the park today and they both went thur the river on their own. WhooHoo!!!  I have pictures but Im to tired to wait for them to post.  Ill try and post them tomrrow.  I also did the weave pole challenge from Kathys blog, but I need to edit the video so you dont have to see all the in between stuff. 

Guiness is much happier too.  I had taken him off the theophylline a couple of weeks ago when he was vomiting. When I took him to the vet that week, there was a different vet working. He said he only works Thurday.  He didnt believe that theophylline could have increase Guiness activity. So I wasnt giving it. But he was just dragging on the walks. Walking behind the whole time. Not playing at all. No running in the yard. So I put him back on it.  Wow, what a difference.  Even my husband said, "wow, Guiness has a lot of spring in his step tonight".  I told him about  putting Guiness back on the theophylline.  He said if he notice, and he doesnt notice anything (his words, not mine) it must help.

"Can I jump to the other side?"