FUN Agility

(Auburn, WA) What a difference a week makes. Last weekend we attended a trial here at Argus and it was in the 80's. This weekend we're here for a FUN-raiser and it's only in the 50's and rainy.

Saturday, Mike decided he was just going to use the day to really push Sparkie for speed to get her confidence back – and not worry about Q’ing. Sparkie had a blast. She really went fast – they only got two Q’s but they were super fast – they beat all the really fast dogs – two of the runs she even got 1st place even though she didn’t Q. She was so fast and beautiful to watch but just had one knocked bar in each run. The courses were deceivingly difficult all weekend. It was VERY common for there to be NO Q’s at all in the Elite 20 and 20+ divisions.

Today (Sunday) Mike and Sparkie had a great day going 5/5 with a lot of first places. On the Regular run she was 10 full seconds faster than the next fastest dog. There were a lot of good dogs there too! I think yesterday's goal of just working on speed and fun really seems to have paid off.

Wazzu had a weird weekend. Sometimes she was happy and really wanted to run. And on the very next run she would act like it was torture – so on those runs we would do two to four obstacles and leave the course. Saturday she only wanted to do one of the Regular runs and part way through Hoopers she decided that was fun. The rest were walk-offs for us. Today (Sunday) she seemed to feel a little better. But I felt there was no need to push her more than necessary. So the second we would have an off course we would just leave (happily). It really seemed as though she wasn’t listening to me today. She usually responds to both my voice and body so readily. But in Jumpers and Regular it was like she took an off course on purpose. However, Wazzu was so fast and happy that she actually got a Chances Q today!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it?! Many small dogs got today’s Chances but the only big dogs to make it were Wazzu and Sparkie! Whoo Hoo!! Our other Q today was in Tunnelers – Wazzu was super duper speedy. And when we finished and I went to put her leash on she was huffing and puffing so hard. She really gave that her all. The other weird thing is that she is drinking a lot of water. She is not a big drinker at all so this is a big change for her.

Overall, I’d say this was a good weekend for the small dogs. Large dogs had a LOT of trouble with these courses. They didn’t look that bad when you walked them but there so many off courses as the big dogs strides took them to the traps. I don’t think I’ve ever seen results like this where it was so lopsided between the big dogs and little dogs. Very interesting.

We’re back in Woodinville now and little Slugger finally got to do something! Swimming!! He’s using his leg more so I’m encouraged at this point anyway that he is recovering as he should.

Debbie
6/9-10/07