So yeah, the heat index has been well over 100 the last few days. So what did I decide to do? Why, I set and ran the above course posted by Steve at AgilityNerd! I set it on Saturday, which was by far supposed to be the coolest day until about next Monday. But it was still pretty hot. I'd actually placed all the jump bars Thursday evening after working at the shelter, but then it rained all day Friday and we weren't able to play.
I took my time finishing the set-up on Saturday, so as not to kill myself before we even started. I let the dogs wander around while I picked up poo, but then stuck them in the house while I built the rest of the course.
I had to do some slight tweaking due to my dog walk having an 8' center plank vs. 12' -- but it was easy enough by just shuffling the jumps on the bottom a bit lower.
I'd watched Steve's video several times to get a good idea of how he handled the sequences -- He did the option without the dog walk in his video, though, whereas I did the one with the dog walk. Having stopped contacts was definitely to my advantage for getting into position for the ending.
Secret really impressed me! The weave entry took a couple of tries and I ended up shaping the entry more than I would prefer (by pushing her out slightly after jump 4) -- But the second time I brought her out she was getting it much better on her own.
Really, the only part of the course that we could not seem to conquer was the line from 9 to 10. I never really got it set to my satisfaction -- I couldn't make it feel right and even the boys (who have much better sends than Secret) even had their share of issues because the line was so off. I tried to stay ahead of Secret (haha!) on the right and then even tried staying on her left and doing a rear cross, but we never got through that section without a spin or off course.
Secret did three reps on our first try and then was just done from the heat and humidity. I tried to get weaves out of her and she walked through them. I let her rest in the air conditioning while I gave the boys their turn (holy heck, Kaiser nailed it!), then I brought Secret back out and let her run it a couple more times at 8". She was nicely refreshed and did great, including super nice weaves. I was about ready to fall over dead by that point, so we called it quits.
I was actually too wiped out to put everything away, so I left it out with the hopes that maybe we would get a shot at it again on Sunday. No such luck. It was just way too miserable outside. All we did yesterday was wander slowly around the yard while I put everything away to keep Kaiser from peeing on it any more than he already had....
Tonight we are going on a search for a dock. Quite honestly it's probably too hot even to do that, but the dogs are starting to get a bit pent up so we will see what we can handle. I'd love to say that you can expect to see video, but I'm kind of hesitant about activities that could lead to the camera being dropped in the water. ;o)
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