Feeling so old. . .
What a tiring weekend. It started on Friday with me getting up at 4:30 in the morning so I could be on the road by 5:30AM. Off to Albany to the dog show where Demi was second up in Open B at 8AM. Got there in plenty of time to get her walked, stretched out and settled in before our turn. Demi's attitude was up and I got a lot of compliments about her attitude in the ring which is totally awesome since we have been working on that. Yay Demi! Unfortunately Demi was a bit too relaxed and she went down on her out of sight sit stay. Sigh, that is a difficult issue to fix since I can't do anything when she goes down. When the judge said exercise finished after the sit stay I just snapped the leash on Demi and walked out of the ring thanking the judge on my way out. We did not do the down stay so she was not allowed to rest comfortably for another 5 minutes. That is about all I could do for that one. Sigh.
After obedience I had to groom Demi out. I also had her entered in the breed ring so we could play around with treats in a ring. Another part of my getting her attitude up in the ring. Demi showed very well for me making the cut in the Herding Group and getting an Owner Handled Group 3. She did signals and tricks during groups and seemed quite happy to be working in the ring. The pull in the group had me smiling that evening. As the breeder and somebody who rarely goes into the breed ring I am always happy to have my Briards appreciated in the group.
We stayed at a motel in Albany because on Saturday we were entered in Agility. Hmmm, that was entertaining. First up was Time to Beat and Demi was a live wire. She was fast and so willing to be pushed off course. I was layering obstacles left and right just trying to from pushing her off me. It was a rear cross into the weaves and she missed her entry which was totally annoying because I have actually been practicing with her and we have been focusing on weaves. Ah well, I loaded her again and she was fine. I came off the course with her to several compliments from people who loved how I handled her on the course. HA! Handling by the skin of my teeth there. We wound up winning the 24" class even with running the weaves 1.5 times. Standard was after T2B and Demi was still over the top. I suspect that all the control in obedience and breed on Friday was exploding out of her in agility. Note to Self, think twice about entering all three things in two days in the future. Standard, was hard to tell if she waited for me to release her or if she anticipated the release, then she missed rear cross weave entry again and while she hit her contacts she had no intention of stopping for the first one. Why should she? The tunnel opening right there was screaming her name. Next contact she did 4 off instead of 2on2off so I immediately put her in a sit before continuing on. She then hit the teeter and while she waited a split second it still wasn't good enough. Another sit, then a down and the final obstacle. I was totally sure she would be excellent in JWW but no, still over the top, I still had to layer several obstacles and not only did she take an off course jump but she also missed the first pole of the weaves. I think it was a tough entry for big fast dogs with the weaves right after the triple. All in all it was a very entertaining agility day and we were done by noon. Demi just makes me smile.
This is where I get to feeling old. Some friends and I went to Dante's to watch Ecstatic Fire perform. There were about 8 fire dancing acts and it was quite enjoyable. The first old part? OMG, it was SO LOUD! Wow. The second old part was that it doors opened at 8:30 and the show started at 9:30PM!!!! That is the time when I am usually all snuggly for the evening/night. Who goes to down town Portland at that time? I hate to say it but I am usually in bed by 11PM. The show went to almost midnight and we still needed to get home. I didn't fall asleep until after 2AM and since I get up without an alarm every morning I got up at the same time this morning. . . 6:30AM. So tired today!
Today has been a bit of a relaxing day with running errands etc although I did take some time to stop by a friend's house to work on a few agility things with Ms Demi. Now it is time to work on my taxes. That will probably put me right to sleep so I should be able to catch up on some ZZZZs.
Who knew there were so many people in Portland who liked to play with fire. Wow!
After obedience I had to groom Demi out. I also had her entered in the breed ring so we could play around with treats in a ring. Another part of my getting her attitude up in the ring. Demi showed very well for me making the cut in the Herding Group and getting an Owner Handled Group 3. She did signals and tricks during groups and seemed quite happy to be working in the ring. The pull in the group had me smiling that evening. As the breeder and somebody who rarely goes into the breed ring I am always happy to have my Briards appreciated in the group.
We stayed at a motel in Albany because on Saturday we were entered in Agility. Hmmm, that was entertaining. First up was Time to Beat and Demi was a live wire. She was fast and so willing to be pushed off course. I was layering obstacles left and right just trying to from pushing her off me. It was a rear cross into the weaves and she missed her entry which was totally annoying because I have actually been practicing with her and we have been focusing on weaves. Ah well, I loaded her again and she was fine. I came off the course with her to several compliments from people who loved how I handled her on the course. HA! Handling by the skin of my teeth there. We wound up winning the 24" class even with running the weaves 1.5 times. Standard was after T2B and Demi was still over the top. I suspect that all the control in obedience and breed on Friday was exploding out of her in agility. Note to Self, think twice about entering all three things in two days in the future. Standard, was hard to tell if she waited for me to release her or if she anticipated the release, then she missed rear cross weave entry again and while she hit her contacts she had no intention of stopping for the first one. Why should she? The tunnel opening right there was screaming her name. Next contact she did 4 off instead of 2on2off so I immediately put her in a sit before continuing on. She then hit the teeter and while she waited a split second it still wasn't good enough. Another sit, then a down and the final obstacle. I was totally sure she would be excellent in JWW but no, still over the top, I still had to layer several obstacles and not only did she take an off course jump but she also missed the first pole of the weaves. I think it was a tough entry for big fast dogs with the weaves right after the triple. All in all it was a very entertaining agility day and we were done by noon. Demi just makes me smile.
This is where I get to feeling old. Some friends and I went to Dante's to watch Ecstatic Fire perform. There were about 8 fire dancing acts and it was quite enjoyable. The first old part? OMG, it was SO LOUD! Wow. The second old part was that it doors opened at 8:30 and the show started at 9:30PM!!!! That is the time when I am usually all snuggly for the evening/night. Who goes to down town Portland at that time? I hate to say it but I am usually in bed by 11PM. The show went to almost midnight and we still needed to get home. I didn't fall asleep until after 2AM and since I get up without an alarm every morning I got up at the same time this morning. . . 6:30AM. So tired today!
Today has been a bit of a relaxing day with running errands etc although I did take some time to stop by a friend's house to work on a few agility things with Ms Demi. Now it is time to work on my taxes. That will probably put me right to sleep so I should be able to catch up on some ZZZZs.
Who knew there were so many people in Portland who liked to play with fire. Wow!