Novice Competition Class 1

Last night was our first novice competition class and it was awesome! The class seems to be challenging but not over our heads. We are split into two groups again - last night there were four dogs in my group. We started on the side that had the most jumps and weaves and the teeter. Worked a lot of little sequences in 30 minutes - some pinwheels, 180s, - mom did a lot of front crosses with me. She's trying to get me revved up to run but now when we get in front of the first obstacle and mom starts to say ready, I immediately start moving but not very fast still. So it's been difficult for her to get a startline routine going. I admit that I am just not helping her very much. I did save her butt a few times when I went the right way and she was not very clear with her handling! And I love the end of the sequences because I get a lot of chicken!

After 30 minutes we headed to the other side which was the contacts plus tunnel, jumps and weaves. My contacts were fine - mostly because I don't run fast enough to miss the yellow! The thing that gave us the most trouble was wrapping - we have practiced jump wraps before, but last night I kept wanting to back jump. Mom tried different moves and we are going to practice all week at home. Too bad we don't get copies of the exercises we do in the class. After doing so many, it's really hard to remember the set-ups when we get home. Overall it was a great class - new people and dogs, a new instructor, and new challenges! Looking forward to next week!

Monday agility class went better this week too. In that class we practice some really advanced stuff - some of it is definitely too hard for us right now - some discriminations and some layering. But it's good to see it and try it. Mom played around with a couple of bc's after class again. One of our former instructors had two of her dogs there - one is a MACH 2 dog - mom ran her and got a real thrill out of it - it's like driving a sports car, she said - hard to control when you don't really know what you're doing! And she also ran with the other dog - a young and wild girl! It's interesting for mom because not only are they super fast dogs, but they're a lot bigger than me and mom has to think about different handling options with them.

Now for some sad news - my cattle dog friend Riley that works with her mom at my favorite pet store has been diagnosed with cancer - she is 10 years old (young for a cattle dog) and doesn't have long to live. They did surgery to remove her spleen but the cancer had spread and is in her blood vessels. Chemo doesn't work well so there's really nothing to do. We are going to visit the store as often as we can in the next few weeks. Please keep Riley and her mom in your thoughts! It's really sad - no one ever knows how much time they have left - we should all make more of an effort to enjoy the time we have......

And so,

Gotta zoom!

Ricky