Run-Throughs!

Poor Secret. Her favorite spot is the bed in front of my desk. Apparently the boys think it's also the best place to be today, so they are monopolizing the space. Secret refuses to go lay on the other bed, so she's just waiting for them to get up. lol Old habits die hard, I guess.

As planned, we went to the agility run-throughs at Family Dog Center last night. They ran from 4-7 p.m. and we got there right around 5:00. I wasn't terribly impressed with the course that was laid out, but it was better than the last time we were there.

I brought the fabric x-pen with this time because I thought Secret might do better with the boys there vs. in the car. I also thought it would be good to give her time to decompress before it was her turn, so I worked the boys first. She was so naughty when I was working Kaiser. People were starting to show up and a couple of workers kept going past the pen with dogs, causing Secret to bark and bark and bark. I had to leave Kaiser several times during his session to go yell at Secret and tell her to shut up. It didn't help. She really didn't quiet down until I finished and was able to go sit next to her and get after her for any little peep. It's not just her, but all the dogs seem to be horrid in that x-pen together. They are much better off being crated separately, but lord knows I'm not hauling all that gear for run-throughs...

Because there were several people waiting for turns, Secret's 10 minutes got split into two five-minute sessions. Truthfully, it worked out much better that way. Shorter is always better where she is concerned. And coincidentally, she ended up almost pooping in the ring at the end of her first five minutes, so we definitely had to make a quick trip outdoors! Poor girl, she gave me this panicked look and started to circle, but she managed to hold it until we got outside.

The first session wasn't too bad. I stuck with food and we started out doing some foundation jumping drills as a warm-up and to start with something familiar. I kept the jumps at 16" all night for her to keep things light & fun.

We worked through everything that was there. We had a chance to work on the a-frame, dog walk, 12 weaves, discriminations, etc. Nothing was super fast, but she did it all and did it well. On top of that, she did seem to be having fun, which is always good. I failed to trim her nails or shave her feet prior to this, so unfortunately there was quite a bit of slipping. I hate those stupid mats.

She seemed much livelier following her poo break, plus she got a good drink of water while waiting for our next turn. I was armed with more cheese "just in case," but I decided to try to focus on playing with toys for our second session. I brought out the Ringzee and a tuggy rope with a ball attached (that later came off...) and the tuggy rope won.

The second session was great! I focused more on jumping & weaves for this session, wanting to take advantage of the higher level of energy & speed she was offering with the toys. She was by no means running full out on those slippery mats, but she was faster than the first session and she was having fun. We did a few contacts towards the end and those were faster as well. Always good to see! She was just starting to peter out at the end of the five minutes, so we timed it well. I jackpotted her with cheese when we exited the ring.

Bonus of the night -- FDC still had my old style of treat bag in stock! They had the original blue and a red one, so I decided to go with the new color. I should have bought the blue one, too, just in case.... I still may. I'm so attached to this style of treat bag. Why are they so stinking hard to find around here? The new style they were offering had some stupid pouch at the front of the bag (for a clicker?). Just give me a clip-on bag with a drawstring (that works -- of note since the piece-o-crap bag I got from PetCo didn't work) and I'm happy.

Lesson in Eau Claire at ABCTC on Sunday! Yay! I should probably shave feet before then...