Sunday

So Sunday I woke up  and no pain. Yea!!  Big dogs were running first so I had some time to find something to do. I tried to find this really cool park but my GPS in my car needs to be updated and it didnt know where the park was. So I went to a friends house and worked on their agility field.   I worked Miley's contacts. I was able to make her break so she must not know them as well as I think she does.  I ran Java as well.  It funny. Last week I put a tunnel under the dogwalk and she would jump off the side, missing the contact.

So I put a wing there to prevent her from jumping off. Once we had run it a few times, I took the wing away and she was still good. Then the next time I went to the field, I set it up again and she was ok. But Sunday, at this new field, nope. Jumped off the side.  More work to do.

Then I let the dogs run through their nice yard.

 

 

These were taken with my phone so not the greatest.

 

Then on to the trial. First up was excellent standard.

 

 

I decided to forget the table. Just work on contacts. When she starts consistently getting them, then Ill add the table.  I talked to a friend about Miley's contacts, if he thought I should pull her if she jumps off. He said he didnt think so. He said Miley is hard because she stresses so much. He thinks I should really try to make stopping in a 2o/2o so rewarding, that its more rewarding to stop then to fly off.  (Im not sure how to do that but food for thought). So I went into the ring. I did a crappy front cross between 4 and 5 and she missed the weave pole entry. So I just flipped her around and she went in. ( not sure why making mistakes in the weaves doesnt bother her but the dogwalk and a-frame causes stress)  So she jumped  the a-frame contact, I said "hey" and she stressed and ran around the ring. Ugh. I just dont know how to make her understand what I want.  So big circle around the ring. She starts coming toward the chute. I told her  "chute" and she went into the chute. How she cut in and made it into the chute, Ill never know. Then her dogwalk, freaking awesome!!! She stopped and held it. Even when I said "good girl", she didnt break. But the amount of frothing at the mouth and drooling was unbelievable. I wish I could have taken a picture. Ive need seen a dog with that much slobber around her mouth when running agility. Do you think that means she over the top excited or over the top stressed? She was so happy after taking the last jump. Her face was priceless. Jumping up and down. Happy, Happy.  Had to reward that dogwalk!!  
Next up was Jumpers. I had to laugh. When I walked the course , I thought, "this looks fun".  And a friend of mind said to me, "Diana this looks like a course you would set up".  LOL, I guess thats why I liked it.

 So I had planned to do a post turn through the pinwheel (11-13) then stay on that side and rear cross 16. But everyone front crossed before 14. So I figured that must be the right thing to do. So I changed my plan when  I went to the line. I can show you this video because there is no running around the ring.



I dont even look like Im running. Im just trying to stay on course. LOL.  Thats my goal. We dropped a bar but so what. We stayed on course. I think the fastest time was 22 seconds and we were 25 seconds, so not bad.  I wish we could work on speed and tight turns but we just arent there yet as a team. But hopefully some day soon.
Im not really into trialing. I wish I were better at it but it isnt the most important thing to me. I really like training. I can feel mentally terrible and go train my dogs. Then leave feeling like a whole new person. Its like a vacation for my brain and life. LOL Like Sunday morning, I just wanted to go home. But my friend was trying to get her MACH. So I wanted to stay and watch. But after I ran my dogs at my friends agility field, I was renewed.  I probably need to get that feeling at a trial huh? Its hard when you only get one shot to get it right. 
Last night at our co-op class I tried to  get Miley really excited.  She stopped on all her contacts.  I had a guy run like he was the judge really close to the contact and she stopped. I had someone hold Java close to the contact, barking , Miley stopped.  So more thinking to do.
You know what was weird. I was sitting at the trial with Java and Miley on leash next to me. This lady came up to me, I didnt know her, and asked me which dog wont get on a table at trials. I point toward Miley and said  "this one". She laughed and said "oh".  And walked away. How werid is that???? I thought maybe she was going to give me advice or tell me about her dog. Or tell me she reads my blog, or something. Nope.

The weekend.

Well I have no pictures to post. I usually take pictures when I go to a trial but I didnt take any. Ive been  having a lot of fibromyalgia pain. All day Friday at work I was miserable. But I made it through the day. I was suppose to drive up to the trial Friday night but just couldnt do it. I woke up at 3am in pain and got up and took some more medication. I drove up to the trial at 5am.  (laying around does not make the pain any better so I try, if I can, to just do things anyway).  The trial site is nice. Its indoor but no A/C. It was cool in the morning but by afternoon it was hot as heck just sitting there. It was only 85 outside but there was no breeze blowing through the building so it was pretty hot. I only worked one class, the 20 inch class. I was pretty miserable being a bar setter, because I couldnt get my pain under control, but I made it through. And the next day I won the worker raffle. It was a $10 gift card to amazon. Whoohoo!!

Standard on Friday was horrible. She jumped all her contacts and wouldnt get near the table. Someone said to me when I came out of the ring, "her weaves were great". LOL  , that was nice of them.  Im not posting the video, its to horrible. I missed telling her to take Jump 9 because I was already thinking about making sure she was suppose to go to the a-frame. She wouldnt get on the table and ran around the ring. I got her back by putting her through the chute. Then we were awesome. LOL  The gate steward said to me, "way to get it back together and finish so nicely".  That was nice of her.

 

Next up was jumpers.  I missed us up here too.

 

For some reason she turned the wrong way after 5 but I got her right back. Then my front cross after 6 was late so I was behind the triple after she took it. This caused her to read it as a turning cue and she went right into the tunnel. Ugh. I couldnt figure out why that happened at first. But this was the 20 inch class that I set bars for. I could see it so easily after watching it happen to a lot of people in this class. Some people RC 8 but this got them the wrong tunnel entrance. Some people blind crossed after the triple. That worked  great.  So if you FC before the triple and were ahead of the dog, you could push them out to 8, other wise you got what I got.

 

Last up was T2B.  This was a run like heck course.

 

And little miss Miley broke her stay. It was almost like she just looked at me and said, "Screw it, Im going" She blew right by me and I was only at jump2. Ugh. I should have pulled her. But I didnt. I dont know how we stayed on course with me so far behind but we did. Then she jumped both a-frame contacts. Ugh.  I was so defeated I just walked the end of the course. I wasnt mad at her . I was mad at myself for letting her run when she broke her stay. So I walked her back to the crate and for the first time ever, no treats. I took Java out and went over to the practice jump ( that ring was done for the day) and worked Java's stays. Which are starting to happen.  I could hear Miley barking at us. So then I went and put Java away and took Miley out. We went to the practice jump and worked stays. I tried everything to get her to break but she didnt. So I think it made an impression. Sunday, she didnt break. I was prepared Sunday to grab her if she broke and leave the ring.

I finally got my pain under control at 7pm.  But my poor dogs didnt get my attention that evening.Ill finish this later. I have to get ready for work.