Tuesday's class

We went to class today - two weeks in a row - woohoo! Today we had to do zig zag lines. I had never practiced them before. They were based on Linda Mecklenberg's zig zag exercises from the section starting on page 185 in her Developing Handling Skills book. Our exercise had four jumps - at least three were winged (maybe all four were) and they were zigged and zagged. Technically the dog should take the jumps that are within four feet away from him and his handler (four feet is the length of a jump bar) without his handler having to use an arm signal or say jump. For our class today handlers were allowed to use those signals. Oh and the handler runs in a straight line (not moving in and out to help the dog). I did pretty well but I did not like the winged jumps and stuttered a little. Jenn says mom should make some wings for me to practice with at home. (We already found a plan to make them).

Other than that, not too much else to report. I did well but was not super fast or anything. Oh, today there was a tunnel that had a table in its curve and as we approached it, mom said "Ricky" to get me to take the tunnel entrance closest to her and I came towards mom and then headed for the tunnel. Mom was happy and did not make sure I was committed to the tunnel before she started to move to meet me at the other end of the tunnel and I thought she was showing me that table and so I hoped up on the too-high table. Ha! So something new to work on! :)

There was a cool part of a sequence that involved the broad jump on a turn and then a tunnel and Jenn showed everyone how they should send their dogs to the broad jump and run behind the tunnel. If we can, we will try to demonstrate this later in the week as it was pretty cool and we want to remember how to do it.

We have lots of daffodils blooming now and these are pretty but the stem came up out of the ground about 2 inches and then it bloomed. Wonder why it is so short? Although flowers and birds think Spring is here and the calendar says it is a fact, we are supposed to have highs of 40 and lows in the 20s with possible snow showers by the end of the week. Hmmm... not what we call Spring exactly!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky