Mar
5
Great agility weekend!
So proud of both my girls this weekend! They really both did GREAT, and it was probably their best weekend combined ever. That’s mostly a reflection of how well Ticket ran, but I’m so happy with both, for very different reasons.
Trip was HAPPY. She was 3/3 on Saturday, all 1st place runs. But what made me happiest was when she barked at me when I was setting her up at the startline in JWW, and then proceeded to stand from her stay at the start before I released her. She used to do that all the time, but since her injury, has been less eager to go, sitting perfectly still at the start. Unfortunately, on Sunday in Standard, that extended to her breaking the start before I turned around. Which would have been fine with me, except she crashed the first bar and freaked herself out (she does NOT like to knock bars, especially hard). She skipped a weave pole, pulled off the tire, was hesitant on the dogwalk–we made it to the table, and found an exit strategy that would leave her happy and not thinking something was wrong. In JWW, I kept my eye on her on a long lead out, but she had no problems, and ran the course well, for another 1st place. I’m thrilled with how she’s looking right now. I pulled her from this coming weekend’s show so we don’t “overdue” it before Nationals, though it’s probably an unnecessary precaution the way she’s running. We have one more show in San Marcos, then a weekend off before Nationals. I’m training her 2-3 times a week right now, with most of that a little dogwalk work, and one day of coursework a week. Still doing acupuncture 3x/week since it seems to be helping.
Ticket was really a superstar. She got her second Exc. A Standard leg on Saturday, and an Exc. B JWW leg on Sunday. She also won 16″ T2B, and got her Exc. A FAST title (on a dogwalk send). She was SO consistent over the weekend–her jumping was mostly good, she had some excellent decel moments, and her rear crosses looked good. She really feels like she’s coming together–I’m trying not to be TOO hopeful that she’ll finish that AX this weekend, but it sure would be nice to get that done. I also got to see Ticket’s brother Rugby nail a ridiculously hard Standard course on Sunday–so proud of him and his mom. 🙂
