19.5

Well, we came close, but no MACH for Bright – she dropped a bar in jumpers. In some ways it would have been nice to finish it up today, but I still celebrated anyway. So I think that’s going to be our new thing, celebrating non-MACHs. I can get a lot of those. Our next potential trial is down in Albany, which is a nice venue – and probably has prettier MACH ribbons anyway. The dobie trial black and brown ribbons are not the most festive. Bright very much enjoyed getting to see all her favorite people today though – there is never a bad day to hang out with friends!

We had some agility goofiness today, Bright totally didn’t even think about stopping on her dogwalk in premier standard and went straight into an offcourse tunnel instead. I did lie her down after and she was then very deliberate with her stop on the teeter. And then in standard she had a slow, but very accurate dogwalk – but didn’t go into the tunnel straight ahead. We will keep working on it, she can do a nice, fast stop – that’s our goal to get that back. Premier jumpers she missed her weave entry, which was a tough one that I was thrilled to see Navarre really look for. Bright, not so much – funny how that works. And then jumpers she just had the bar, so lots of good and some steps in the right direction on the contacts. Currently planning to do some USDAA and another AKC trial this month. Want to feel back in sync by the end of March. Feeling good about the handling, for the most part though.

Navarre was a pretty good boy, he also stopped on his dogwalk in standard, but it wasn’t very fun – I debated about using his running turn command, but decided to test the stop instead. He definitely understands the difference! Much better to teach that from the very beginning. He nailed all his weavepoles all weekend, no issues whatsoever – so that made me very happy. Could collect more, but wasn’t as ridiculous as he was at the start of yesterday. Had a lovely premier jumpers run, but the ending line was just wicked and lost him to the wrong end of the tunnel, but I believe he won premier standard. Normal standard I didn’t see what happened but I think he slipped on the downramp of the dogwalk, and then went the wrong end of the tunnel – I could have worked that whole section a lot more proactively. Jumpers he did well with, he’s slowly growing up. I don’t think he ran around an obstacle all weekend!

Aja and David even popped into the trial to visit. I figured this would be hard for Aja, she had never been to Ridgefield before and it is LOUD and very chaotic. But, no, in typical baffling girl border collie fashion – she just walked right in and was like, ‘Hey, cool.’ She was a little cautious meeting new people, but quickly warmed up. But just like normal wariness – not The Drama. She was offering behaviors, perfectly happy to walk through the people and other dogs, and had a total blast playing with a frisbee in the warm up jump area. No reaction to the dogs barking or teeter or buzzers or anything. We did a whole tour of the facility, met lots of people and some dogs, she had no issues even going through the main aisle-way. So, yeah, explain that to me. David had been discouraged she had refused to have anything to do with some guests he had over for hours the other day, but this was clearly a different scenario in her mind. Girls, who can guess what they’re thinking.

It was good to see her, she’s a fun little thing. She’s coming back for a visit the end of this week. Maybe we’ll see about letting her have another go on the sheep this weekend. Will be interesting to see if my dogs still like her when she comes back this time. The longer she’s away and the older she gets, I imagine they’ll find her much less charming.

So a fun weekend. Much more fun today, smaller trial with everyone watching the Super Bowl and the tall to small works SO much better. Well, if you’re a ‘tall’, anyway. Helps that it continues to be ridiculously warm, what’s winter again?