Still Taking Baby Steps

Let me just cut right to the good news: Mimi ran four complete courses out of five attempts this weekend, earning two Qs and placements in all four of the completed runs!! Woohoo!

I took Mimi to a USDAA agility trial in College Station this weekend. It was a 3-day trial, but she's not up to running three days so I entered her on Friday and Saturday. Sure, I have to take a day off from work doing it this way, but Fridays usually have lower entries and I thought she might be more comfortable if it was a bit less hectic. I also took Harry and Dyna along for moral support.

I decided not to take Cap because this weekend was going to be all about Mimi. He would just be a distraction from that. Harry and Dyna are more than happy to go along for the ride, wherever that ride might end up, so they were an easy choice.

I got up at 1am on Friday morning, showered, packed the dogs and the car, and left for College Station at 3am. I know all of you are asking what the hell I was thinking. Well, it was all part of the plan. I wanted to make sure I arrived at the arena by 6:30am so I could get a crating area that put the backs of the crates against the wall. I wanted plenty of time to get set up so I wouldn't be rushed and stressed myself, and I wanted time to feed the dogs at the arena. Mimi had to be measured around 7:15 or so and I wanted to be completely set up by then. It was a brutal drive with only three hours of sleep behind me but we made it safely.

Mimi was entered in three runs on Friday: Starters Gamblers, Starters Standard, and Starters Jumpers. Even though I really enjoy the game of Snooker, all clubs now have the judges call the points through a mic and a PA system and I thought Mimi was not ready to try that again. And I am not willing to jeopardize someone else's Pairs run if she's not ready, even though for Pairs she only has to do half a course.

Imagine my astonishment when I went out for the Gamblers briefing to be told by the judge that the club had sent their electronic timers out for repair and they hadn't arrived back so the entire show was going to be done the old fashioned way: hand timing and no PA. What luck!

My goal for Gamblers was simple: to keep Mimi in the ring for 25 seconds, the length of time allotted to the opening. It was a nice little Gambler course and the gamble was just four jumps and even though I walked it out, I went into the ring with Mimi not planning to try it. But she was so excited and still completely with me so when the gamble whistle blew at 25 seconds, I thought, what the hell, let's try it. And she nailed the gamble!! She needed 15 points in the opening and she got 16. She earned a Q and second place in the 16" Starters dogs.

Next up was Standard. She ran the entire course beautifully--but the table remains a very scary place. To my surprise, she got on the table, got into a sit when I asked, then into a down. But she only held it to a count of three before standing up and I saw that she was getting stressed so I just called her off to the next obstacle. That gave us a fatal table fault and no Q, but we did earn third place out of three 16" Starters dogs. She hit all of her contacts and did all 12 weave poles on the second try. Very nice run.

Of course, her abilities far exceed those simple Starters courses but when you add on all of that stress, even simple weave pole entries become a big challenge for her.

After a bit of a wait for Pairs to be run, we had Jumpers as the last game of the day. I completely screwed up the first two obstacles, sending her into the wrong end of the tunnel, but we finished the run in grand style well under course time. That wrong course is a fatal error in Jumpers but she earned second place in her division.

Normally, I don't keep placement ribbons if I don't also Q because there's not much point. But these two placement ribbons were super special and I did collect them. (Note to non-agility readers: USDAA awards placements even if dogs don't Q; if four dogs Q, they get all of the placements, but if only one dog Q's, the next three highest scoring dogs get placements. Qs are required to earn titles.)

Saturday was much more crowded but the morning started in our ring with Starters Jumpers. It was jumps only, not even a tunnel, and was just a couple of large sweeping loops. Mimi nailed it and we earned a Q and first place. We were the only 16" Starters dog to Q in Jumpers, out of a class of 6 or 7 dogs!

Every ribbon got a toy. Q ribbons are maroon colored. This is my booty for the two days.

The wait to Gamblers was far too long and I could tell when I got Mimi out of her crate that afternoon that she was not at all happy about going back into the ring. When she went around the first jump, I knew we were finished, but I stuck it out, asked her do some easy stuff like tunnels and the Aframe, one of her favorites, and we ran out of the ring together.

We are far from getting the ring stress behind us but I know that my training and patience will pay off. Mimi was happy and relaxed and showed plenty of enthusiasm and pleasure on Friday. It will happen for us.

Back home enjoying the spoils.

I've got three amped up dogs who were kenneled for two days, yard work to do, a house to clean, and some computer stuff to do for work, so I may not get the video processed and posted today. I didn't get that first amazing run filmed, but, on the advice of Gosia, I did ask friends to film all of our other runs so I could look at Mimi's stress levels.