Yesterday's Agility

Quick Layla Update: things are kind of the same.  I'm hesitant to say it, but her nose looks a TINY bit better than it did yesterday.  Vet had me bump up the dose of Prednisone to .4 cc for yesterday and today.  I can't believe it's already been a week; all I want, really, is for her nose to heal.  Keep sending her good vibes and thoughts.  My poor little cone head!

Yesterday's agility class came with an unexpected treat: only two people besides me were there, which meant we got a lot more time on course.  (Seriously, why do people pay for classes and then don't come?  I mean, it's fine with me, I certainly like the extra time, but I can't imagine spending that much money and then not using it!)

Again, no video.  I do promise to have video on Friday from the trial, though.  Here is the course map:

And, how I ran it:

• Led out between 1 and 2 and continued running down the line to get to the dog walk.
• Her dog walk contacts were extremely strange tonight.  My hunch is that someone peed in the grass near the base of it or something, because instead of doing a 2o2o, she was stoppping with all four legs in the yellow part of the contact area.  She usually does stuff like that when the grass is wet or smelly or something.
• Sent her on to the jump and the tunnel; tunnel entrance was not difficult, and it was literally right in their path as they came over the jump.
• The pinwheel-type thing was extremely tricky.  You had to decelerate so that the dog didn't take the dog walk again, BUT, if you decelerated too much, you pulled them off from the jump.  I think that's really the only thing I had trouble with.
• Back cross to the weaves was fine; I was initially confused as to how my instructor wanted me to handle it, but once I figured out what she meant, it was a piece o'cake.
• Front crossed the weaves and then front crossed again after the jump.  Marge could have just sliced the jump and then take off from there for the A-Frame, but Marisa said she wanted us to practice this.
• !!!!! SHE DID HER A-FRAME CONTACT BEAUTIFULLY EVERY SINGLE TIME!  Oh, it was totally awesome.  Really hoping that she holds it at the trial.  I think she will.  She is totally getting it now.
• Front crossed the A-Frame (mostly to proof her holding her contact), sent her over the jump and in to the tunnel, back crossed over the jump and then pushed/backed over the final jump.

Nice course.  It might have been the trickiest that we've seen at class so far this season, but it worked a lot of different skills and it was fun to run.

We had a visitor to class who is thinking about joining up.  Marge absolutely LOVED her and her smooth coated Border Collie.  I'm hoping they do join - perhaps for a selfish reason.. they passed the "Marge Seal of Approval" test with flying colors and it'd be nice to have another classmate who Marge gets along with!