Discrimination!

Ha! I caught them! Secret and Kaiser love each other. Most of the time it appears as though they are trying to kill each other with their rough-and-tumble all out play style. Seriously, I yell at them all the time -- Last week Secret must have gotten Kaiser in the foot because he hobbled around on three legs for several days. He asks for it, though, by jumping up and yanking her tail all the time. But there are moments where they can be calm and snuggle together.

Secret says, "It's a lie! She photoshopped that picture above!"

I think the dogs like "wash the bedding day" as much as I do. I wish they wouldn't shed so stinking much. The amount of hair that comes out of the lint trap is kind of gross....

At any rate, as planned, I set up a nice little discrimination exercise with the dog walk last night. It was nothing fancy, just the tunnel under one end with hoops and jumps and weave poles thrown in for a bonus. For a treat, here is my super awesomely horrible Paint drawing:

I ran out of room. That should, of course, be 12 weave poles. ;o)

We warmed up with the poles. For the record, Secret weaves awesomely fast for her jolly ball. Even then, though, she still hops. She is a hopper. That is all there is to it. But she got down really low and hopped really fast, so I'm happy with her. :o)

Despite my super poor handling (I found myself having to support her through the pinwheel more than I would have preferred), Secret did awesome. She never got one wrong, even when I forgot what I was doing and didn't cue her until the last second. (Note to self, don't work Secret last. I lose all brain power and forget that she doesn't handle the same way as the boys.) Her dog walk performance was slower when faced with the discrimination, but I blame myself for that because I was throwing fuzzy signals to her because I wasn't trusting that she would get it right. Bad handler. She still drove nicely to the end position, though, and her dog walk performance in the other direction (without the tunnel underneath the approach) was super.

I have to give myself a pat on the back for not drilling her into oblivion with this exercise. I actually managed to keep it decently short and I quit while she was still happy and motivated. We finished with a nice hard entry into the weaves. Secret will be in *ELITE* Weavers at our next trial, so I'm really pushing her for speed right now. Luke and I struggled with time in that class for so long.... I'm very interested to see where Secret's time will be.

Speaking of -- I've more or less decided to make the trip to the MMBC NADAC trial in Savage after all. I'm working that weekend, but they are offering three classes on Friday night (Tunnelers, Weavers & Hoopers). Secret has yet to run Hoopers, so I want to get that out of the way (especially if I want to try to get her into Champs!), and technically Kaiser still needs one Hoopers Q, too. Luke could always use another Weavers Q and I'm still trying to round out his Elite Hoopers Q's and finish his Superior title. So..... That all makes it seem like a good idea to drive almost 400 miles round trip in a day for a total of 9 runs. It would be Secret's first outdoor trial, too! Entries close on Friday, so I have to get that in the mail soon....

Is it any wonder why I have to have a king-sized bed? Bed hogs.