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!
ReplyDeletethe 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
ReplyDeleteI 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 ;)