Luigi is a cookie monster. When he wants one, he goes to the jar, wherever it is, and loudly announces his desire. He’s a prime example of the old proverb
The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Here are Leissl and my Pref Nov runs on Saturday, January 30, 2010 at the Miami Obedience Club Agility Trial.
We Q’d both times!
Here are Leissl and my Pref Nov runs on Sunday, January 31, 2010.
We Q’d both times
and
this was the first agility title either of us ever earned!
Here is my 12-1/2-year-old Baby walking in the Veteran’s Parade at the Miami Obedience Agility Trial on Saturday, January 30, 2010. This is a very special event for all senior dogs. Their owners write a paragraph about their special relationship with their companions, and while each takes a turn to walk through the specially designed agility course, the announcer reads the description. At the end of the walk is a person who places a very beautiful red ribbon over the head of the dog and gives them plenty of loving. In this case it was a husband and wife who did an absolutely beautiful job. The wife read and the husband met the dogs at the end. Baby loves men, so this explains why she suddenly decided to jump that last 8-inch hurdle. She’s such a flirt!
For dogs that have passed on, the description is read for all to hear, and a ribbon is given to the handler. It is a very loving and tearful experience.
Friday is winding down. Shortly, I’ll be leaving for home and an evening of getting ready for the Miami Obedience Club’s Agility Trial, which has been going on as of yesterday and today. I entered Leissl for the weekend, and Baby will go for the Veteran’s Parade tomorrow. I am thinking of taking Dudley, too, for a chance to take in the environment, but also for the stupid pet tricks competition tomorrow also.
There is a lot going on at the trial besides the trial in the next two days. A lot of competitions for free entries next year. I don’t quite understand them all. I’m entering the composition competition, which I do understand. Yes, they even have that. And a crossword puzzle competition, trailer trash dinner, insane raffle, top chef competition, and more! It should be fun. The hardest part of all this is packing, getting ready, doing it all. Since I’ve twice before forgotten my chair, it now lives in the truck. After the packing and getting there part, there’s the finding a site, unloading and setting up. After that, I can breathe and do what I went there for. Agility. It will be a long day tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to some fun!
Last night was the first run-through we had in a long long time. Months even. It was lightly populated with handlers, but most of the handlers had two or three dogs, so what I expected to be a quick evening turned out to be a substantial time out.
I brought only Leissl. She and I are trialing this weekend, and I wanted to focus on her. Raven is still on sabbatical, anyway. She’s got some things to learn and focus on before I invite her back into a trial ring to pair up with me for another agility dance. I think she’s feeling being slighted. I took her out in the back the other night to work on the front cross training from Susan Garrett’s Success With One Jump DVD. She wanted to play most of the night. She’d been shoving toys at me, and I ignored it, so when I got her outside, she was ready to cooperate.
I set her up and did the drill, and offered her the tug toy I’d made as a reward. She took it and tugged a little. Then we did the drill a few more times when she spotted the toy she really likes. She ran over to pick it up and bring it to me. I took it and put it up. It wasn’t a tugging type toy, and I was not going to let Raven dictate the toy we’d use because that’s what she’s doing on the agility field. She dictates the obstacles she takes. On the other hand, it hurt me to deny her playing with her favorite toy. I really wanted to take that toy and throw it for her because she loves running. But that wasn’t going to improve our communication in agility, and it wouldn’t work for the drill we were doing. I also stopped myself from playing the fetch game after we finished the drill. I wanted Raven to go inside and think about what we did and to get the idea that I’m the boss of toys and everything else. Really. Raven’s a little commando, and I’ve got to put my thumb on everything because she is a master at taking a yard when I give an inch.
