April Showers Agility

We just wrapped up the first day of our Friday - Sunday combo for agility this weekend.  This is the same trial that Marge debuted at a year ago, when mixed breeds first became eligible for competition in AKC.  Hard to believe that it was that long ago.

It goes without saying that the weather was HORRIBLE!  Anyone on the East Coast knows that the forecast has been calling for an April Fool's Nor'easter since early this week.  Thankfully, we missed most of the snow, but got pelted with icy rain throughout the entire morning.

A lot of people were absent from the trial.  My first class of the day was Excellent Jumpers, which turned out to be such a small class.  The cool part? I got to do two walkthroughs - the general walkthrough before the trial started as well as the walkthrough with my height class.

I then set up my tent, coincidentally right next to Amy & Layla.  It was great to see them, and Marge took to Layla right away, who serenaded her a couple of times with her Malamute songs :)

I didn't have to wait very long before running, but it was extremely wet and unpleasant.  Marge was dealing pretty well before she ran.. a little excited, even, by the cold temperatures.

The course was a nice course.  I walked the whole thing with rear crosses and didn't think twice about it.

I was extremely calm when I got into the ring, which I was proud of myself for.  Marge read me really well through the first 10 obstacles.. then came the weaves.

And, what do you know? She missed her entry!  The one thing I practiced to death last weekend is the thing she missed!

I think it was just a freak thing.. she looks like she never really collected herself and maybe didn't see the poles that well.  I first I thought I pulled her off or forgot to decelerate, but I actually think I cued it OK. She certainly had no problem weaving once I helped her with the entry.

The rest of the course was fine, up until the last jump, where I had it in my mind for some reason that I had to switch sides at the triple, thus pulling her off of the last jump, the double.  In that regard, I'm kind of happy she didn't weave - I would have been so mad at myself if we had a clean run and then I screwed it up at the last obstacle!

But she came out of the run happy and excited, and we went straight back to the practice jump for some more cookies.

The judge said "oh, darn it!" in a joking voice as we walked by outside of the ring.  I told her that it was Marge's first time in Excellent, and she said that in that case, we did pretty well.  I liked her.

We waited around a bit after that but Marge just wasn't feeling it.  She outright refused to stay in her crate, then would stand there and shiver if I took her out.  I think she was just feeling cold and icky.  She looked better when she was moving around and even played with another dog, but she clearly would have rather been inside and warm.

I went to go walk Open Standard, but I just didn't think it was a good idea to run.  It was still raining on and off, the contact equipment was old (and EXTREMELY rough to the touch, to the point of being uncomfortable).  I knew I'd be hard pressed to get her to lie down on a wet table, and knew there was a significant possibility of her bailing on the teeter or one of the other contacts, so I decided that running would not be beneficial.  I scratched her and packed up and left and am happy with my decision.

So, we went ribbonless, but had a very worthwhile Jumpers run in the rain.  The weather Sunday is supposed to be significantly better, so I'm hoping to finally wrap up that Open Standard title then!