Cutest Puppy Ever!!!!Darling Dixie is a 3 month old Aussie that just came to live with some friends of mine who trial on weekends. Since this would be the first chance anyone got to see her, we sucked it up and made the drive. She is lucky she is this cute because I had to get up an extra hour early to meet her. . .I hate the time change!
Since we were there, I figured that we might as well trial too. I put Abby in Jumpers and 2 standard courses. I was super surprised how the day went.
The jumpers course was first thing and I am always the most nervous first thing in the morning because we aren't warmed up. Plus, we have a clean slate with the judge and I don't want him to look at us every other time we enter the ring with frustration. Abby surprised the crap out of me on her jumpers run. I was very pleased with her performance. She took off great with three straight jumps, then turned for an angled up without even thinking about running to sniff in the corner! There were some more jumps followed by another angle and then more jumps. . .which she blew past to sniff the sand bags. . . I am not at all surprised that she did that, and not at all frustrated about it. There was a time in her life when she would have been terrified of the bags and would have stopped working entirely. I got her attention back and we finished perfectly. She was gorgeous. I looked at the times later and realized that we could have Q'd with her run had she stayed on course! I was so proud of her! I actually feel like we did it - probably because this is the first time that I actually realized that we could if we keep working! I really wish I remembered my camera at 5:30am (well, actually it was 4:30 to my brain but the time change made it and hour later)
After our jumpers run things seemed to fall apart. We had a terrible standard 1 course. I was deeply disappointed because these are the types of coursed that we run every week. The standard 2 course opened my eyes to why we had such a bad standard 1 course, so I am glad that we pushed through for the second. The first course had a discrimination early a tunnel or a dog walk - not surprised that she took the tunnel - the wrong obstacle. After that it was useless. She had a bit of fun on the A-frame but we were a complete mess. The second run (exact oposite of the first) started out great. We jumped, weaved, tunneled, took the A-frame, then came back to the first discrimination - FAIL! She wouldn't take either. She just sort of FROZE. I finally got her to take one - which was the wrong one. . .then put her through the tunnel to end the course early. What did I learn? Abby doesn't like to be wrong.
Back when I was training Mole I had to be very careful when he missed an obstacle because he would fall apart when he was wrong. But I never noticed it in Abby before. You could see the look on her face: utter fear and confusion. It completely broke my heart. Here is a dog that desperately wants to please me and is terrified of making the wrong decision. (Just a side note, when she has been wrong in the past, I say "no" or "nope" and ask her to do it again. You are not allowed to use physical punishment for dogs in agility nor are you allowed to use harsh commands or raise your voice in disapproval - you will be disqualified for the day.) Abby has been fine with that in class, but apparently that is too much in a trial. I guess she understands that there is a difference. Now, I have to work harder on discriminations and remember to bypass the obstacle completely in a trial if she misses it. We are a long way from a Q in standard, so there is no reason for her to go back and try again - especially if it stresses her out.
Another good thing about the day was that the other Iggys were running too!! I love to watch them because they run so fast and so clean. Another reason is because they are all rescued too and it gives us something to strive for. I wasn't able to talk to Jennifer, couldn't find her, but I heard later that she thought that Abby had come a long way and was looking good. I was very pleased to hear it. I can see the difference, and I know that my friends can see the difference, but it is nice that other people, people I look up to, also see the changes. We have been working so hard for so long, and the changes are often so small that it is hard to look back and see all those changes a whole.
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