my mind is going a million miles a minute thinking about the weekend and trying to process all kinds of things
some of what I really really liked about this weekend:
- Sally’s speed – she was consistently the fastest or second fastest dog in her classes
- no bars all weekend (not that I expected them)
- Sally’s distance work was amazing .. I had every confidence when I sent her out to something it would be done
- All dogs read front and rear crosses without issue
- Sally held every start line stay like a pro
- Thea’s dog walks and aframes were PERFECT (so were Brody’s ~ I really must give that boy credit too)
- I got the balance right to warm up each dog properly – take Sally out and let her run after the Frisbee – let Thea stretch and pee and wander around while Sally blasts.. give each of them lots of individual time but together time is fine too … all of them appreciated a warm up jump or two
- Sampson coped just fine at home with Nancy coming to give him a break
- I got to watch people handle a wide variety of dogs in a million different ways
some of what gives me fat to chew as the expression goes:
- a dog went off at Sally and me on the start line – lunging through the soft sided crate and through the ring gate – scared the pants off us both – in fact I burst into tears (great way to start a run huh?)
- Sally got a little barky at dogs who dared look at her in her crate a couple of times
- Thea dropped behind me on course twice – I saw it both times once I managed to get her back on track once I failed
- Thea worried about the chute
- Sally behaved like she’d never seen the downside of an aframe in her life
- Sally barked at me on course
- Brody was slow off the start line a couple of times
- Brody bobbled in the weaves – didn’t stop or go backwards but definitely struggled
no wonder my mind is full …
Well, it does look like the good outweighed the bad. So sorry about that dog getting snarky with yours. I have no problem with people bringing does with issues to trials (IF the dog has been trained to a very high level and shown progress with their behavior modification), but they need to properly manage them and ensure that they never get in the way of another exhibitor. I would have cried, too!
the people were most apologetic – I went and met the dog afterwards as I was a wreck … she is a sweetie pie but she had been left unattended for a bit and really overreacted to us
I don't mind dogs with issues either but it felt like this trial was FULL of them .. one extreme or the other – either people with barking over the top dogs or people insisting on tugging right in the aisle in front of my crates
I ended up carrying poor little Thea virtually everywhere inside as it was all people making me crazy 😉