Flying Poodles

Two for Dancer, Two for Elly

I had a lovely time with Dancer and Elly at the Rainier Agility Team’s CPE trial this weekend. It was our first experience at CPE, and I found it a great venue in which to get Dancer a bit more agility experience in a low-stress environment.

I put both dogs in Level 1, the lowest and easiest level (no teeter, no weaves), which was an interesting experience,  since they ran five dogs apart all weekend. Friends held one dog while I ran the other; I swapped dogs and went back into the ring. Good test of stamina.

Elly got a Q and a first in Snooker, with 38 points in 54.26 seconds; she also got a Q and a third in Full House, with 19 points in 38.51 seconds. (We cut that a little close; 19 points was required to Q.)  Dancer got a Q and a second in Wildcard, with 40.66 seconds, against a standard course time of 38 seconds; she got a Q and a third place in Jumpers, with a spectacular run of 30.54 seconds to cover 125 yards.

Okay, so I’ve finally figured out contacts: I need to watch the contact zone, point at it, and stay there until the dog hits it. So… what did I do on Elly’s standard run today? As Ellywas coming down the dogwalk–I raised my arm and said “GO JUMP” as I would as she went over a jump and I wanted to her to go on past me. So she listened beautifully, accelerated right over the contact zone and went out ahead of me to the last jump. It was a thing of great beauty… and absolutely wrong!

Poor Elly, her IHS (Inept Handler Syndrome) was acting up again!

(There will be photos… once I get my computer working properly again… one of its drives died, poor thing.)