Ahh the fall colors are showing their beauty this week.
Amber and I completed Intro to Nose work 1. It was a struggle. Not that it was hard. Just that a 6 week class that started the first week of July finished in the end of September and was drawn out due to instructor's complications. I think she'd have done better had there been pee-mail in the boxes rather than a kibble.
Before that photo above, the trick dog jumped through the frame. The instructor caught the return trip.
I love this dress a lot but don't wear it much because it's a "wrapper". Wrappers were like a bath robe for house chores but all the underpinning ready for a quick outer change for unexpected company.
Tuesday afternoon I took Amber to her first Tea Cup agility event at the coaxing of Kim Dykstra. They were expecting me when I checked in. I got a Teacup ID "pending" and got 3 trial runs and passed one. Amber turned it into a playground. While waiting for the experienced teams in their trials, I was shown how to be a timekeeper with the most patient person to shadow after. I found a little cheerleader inside myself as the other dogs ran and hinted a nose to go off course. These participants had such cute little dogs and the people were so friendly for someone new to this. I should feel guilty about a blue ribbon with no competition in our category. However, it's an initiation ribbon.
After running Amber, I did a run with Pixie (a black teacup toy poodle). This was a demo test run never intended for evaluation or score. Pixie's owner is having trouble with her leg and since Pixie is most acquainted with me from the club, we thought to give it a try. Pixie has separation anxiety from her mommy. She would do one obstacle and run to the gate for her mommy. Then I'd pick her up and set her in front of the next obstacle one by one. Then back and forth.
Tuesday evening, the neighbor across the street brought me warm cinnamon apple donuts freshly made. I can't remember my last doughnut.
Wednesday evening we canceled our AmVets meeting so I went to agility practice at Deb's place. She is trying to teach me blind crosses like at 1:21 on this video. Deb nicknames the technique as "pull the wagon". I'm having difficulty with it like learning a new dance step.
Friday I took Amber and Sophie to Caseyville. Went through some pretty dense fog part of the way. Amber needed on leg to title in Beginner Novice A and Sophie needed 2 legs to title in Rally Novice B. As I drive in the car, I can see Amber sitting next to me in the passenger seat with those big brown eyes like my husband had. Amber passed by the grace of the judge and the fact that we were in the inexperienced class "A". The judge gave me a little talk afterward that she didn't have with the other two competitors. My hand gestures were not natural or at my belly button, I repeated "Stay" and that's not allowed. I was expecting a "sit for inspection" but it was a "stand for inspection" which was fine and we were prepared for that. I expected the whole thing to be on-leash and half of it was off leash. We did a perfect figure 8 around cones but I was expecting the figure 8 to be around two people. This could have been a COVID modification. Putting our leash on a paper towel instead of a leash runner was a COVID change as well. I'm also concerned with her distracted sniffing along walls and floors. Hence the nose-work classes that have not kicked in from just an Intro Course that isn't progressing fast enough for my needs. I'm also thinking that since there were 2 men handling the other dogs and their owner is listed as a female that the handlers had pre-trained dogs by someone else.
Notice the man that handler for this First Place dog taking a picture but that the owner is a woman on the score sheet. This tells me there was help involved and the dog may have experience but the title was about the new handler.
Here's Amber with her overly generously awarded ribbon. The little green one is for the "qualifying" grade, yellow for third place (out of 3 entries duh!) and purple is for the 3rd and final leg awarding title of "beginner novice"(BN). Her first two legs were in June of 2019 with a blue and red for those trials. I've decided to hang up our 6' leash and use a 3' leash for everyday use until she heals better and stops the sniffing.
This is Sophie's first trial with an "NQ". The other NQ on trial 1 was a young St Bernard that was asked to leave the ring before finish for jumping all out of control. At least we finished and got a "yay" at the end. I didn't know we NQ'd until I saw it on the board.
After getting home late in the evening and feeling dissatisfied with myself, I went to bed early. The girls barked through the night in the yard through the doggie door flap. Ya know, I didn't care. The next morning I was teary and guilt ridden over Amber's new title that we didn't deserve. I don't know where to go next with her. I do know that Sophie will never trial again. I only brought her "out" at the hint of a club member. Sophie is really good as a therapy dog but I demanded too much from her. Sophie's openness to approach others to spread love is not always welcomed at the club or at a trial.
When I first started learning agility, we were taught to teach the teeter gradually because the fear that the "bang" would be a tremendous set back and hard to un-learn. Well what about my set back? I think my memory matters too. Amber, I don't forget your disloyalty over sniffing.
So Saturday morning I went to yoga class to help normalize my mind and body. I went into class with the woes and came out less woeful but I wouldn't say neutral. I have more trials on my calendar before I cut the cords with her training plans like I did with Sophie. I started a gibberish song to my dog.
♫ This is a song ~ about my dog ~ she likes it ~ Oh yeah
♫ and I filled it in with what ever came to mind. It didn't have to make sense because she liked the tone. I can say anything, even bad mouth her, as long as I say it in song. I got the idea from watching the "Freedom Riders" documentary on American Experience. They would sing "They can take away my mattress" and "They can take away my toothbrush"or what ever the stupid imposition was made by police.
After years of vacancy in the house behind, it will soon be occupied. I realized that since I had new window installed in my bedroom last year, that the blinds I used to have will not fit, the new neighbors will be able to see clearly into my bedroom. I decided to put sheers lace curtains up that were sitting in my closet. It seems to works. Saturday night I noticed my dogs barking in the back yard and noticed they are moving in and have 2 dogs they were letting out. I'm sure they will want to put a fence up since it's wide open.
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