I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas!! I had a fabulous Christmas, both of my boys are home together for the first time in I don't know how many years that is fantastic!! The weather has not been great but who cares when you are surrounded by family and friends! I also had a fantastic Birthday :-) I was the lucky recipient of too many wonderful Christmas and Birthday gifts. I am definitely going to be a very well dressed agility teacher/competitor in the New Year!
The dogs probably wished for a slightly better Christmas, we had about 72 hours of 60-70 mph winds and so the pups had to spend a significant amount of time inside, plus there was that whole shopping thing that took precedence over all else :-)
Now that the hubbub is over we can breathe a bit and maybe actually get a bit of training done. On Sunday I broke tradition and actually headed out to another fun match with SoBe and Merger. SoBe had the majority of the runs but Merger actually got to play in one run as well. It is very comical the contrasts between Merger and SoBe.
SoBe needed 3 of the 4 runs because we had to have multiple discussions about what the actual dog walk criteria is, she needed a couple of start line reminders and then there is that whole collection thing necessary to transition from the first to the second weave pole :-) Ultimately she got all of that figured out and per the norm kept all of her bars up, had perfect running A-frames and teeters, as well as doing everything at the speed of light.
Truthfully we accomplished everything I was hoping to by going to the match, put her in trial mode and be able to "fix" things.
She also had the opportunity to hear some new noises that a microphone makes and get used to those as well.
Merger had perfect stays, awesome weave poles, and in general was a perfect boy, hence the contrast comment :-) His A-frame seems to really be coming together and his teeter was also very nice. I do not think he dropped any bars but is still in need of a bit of confidence in order to really offer the speed on course that I know he is capable of.
It is always very interesting to me to train polar opposites in dogs at the same time, it definitely keeps me on my toes as a trainer.
We had a very good time at the match and I am very glad I decided to go :-) We have a trial this weekend and I am really excited about it!
So, how did everyone like the course?? I have another that is even harder with some really cool challenges that I will post in the upcoming week.
Until then, have a very good week and a Happy New Year!
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