Friday, April 10, 2009

Operation Jealousy

It's late, I'm tired, and I have to be in Belton by 8am tomorrow which means I need to leave by 5am which means I need to get up at 3am. Better than this morning when I got up at 2am. So I'll try to keep this short.

Following my friend DSL's advice, I put Operation Jealousy in place today. I cruelly taunted Mimi with vienna sausages then gave them to Gracie. I played ball with Gracie in front of Mimi's crate. I took Gracie all over the arena with Meems stewing in her crate wondering what we were up to.

Ready for the results?

Mimi Q'd and placed first in Jumpers for our AKC Novice B Jumpers title at 8am, then around 2:30 pm she Q'd and placed third in Standard for our AKC Novice B Standard title.

I collected every ribbon that I was entitled to: green Q ribbons, placement rosettes, New Title rosettes, and that bright orange Double Q rosette. We worked hard for those ribbons! That's Mimi on the left, Gracie on the right.

Some highlights:
  • I immediately filled out the move up form so tomorrow we will be running in Open.
  • I got a short lead out on both runs. Sure, I was no more than a few feet in front of the first jump but it was a real lead out. I left her in a sit and walked away.
  • Mimi sat on the table and held it for the full count, even holding it while I moved away from the table before releasing her. Amazing!
  • Mimi hit all of her contacts.
  • She did her weaves on the first try in both runs.
  • The Standard course judge was rather generous in her calls, as many judges are for the Novice classes. In the video below, Mimi hesistates ever so slightly at the table and the tunnel, both of which would probably have been called refusals in Excellent.
  • Mimi usually deflates completely after the first run, emotionally and physically. Instead, this afternoon she was thrashing around in her crate ready to be let out after I played with Gracie right in front of her. (I carefully timed my play with Gracie to take place while the 12" dogs ran so that there was only a couple of minutes between putting Gracie away and getting Mimi out for her run.)
  • Mimi was BEGGING me for treats and attention in the gate area before our Standard run. She was jumping on me just like she does in class without even an eye flick to the usual crowd of dogs and people in the gate.
In fact, I think the "just like in class" thing is important. I was feeling pretty frustrated when I posted last night, and when I got to the arena this morning, I had sort of mentally thrown up my hands and said, okay, whatever, Mimi is going to do what she is going to do. So with no false expectations, I entered the ring both times just like I do in class--I wasn't stressed or worried about Mimi's stress or worry, I wasn't stressed or worried about the outcome. I just ran the courses like I planned them.

But the real surprise was how Mimi reacted to my playing with Gracie. In short, she had a total hissy fit every time I got Gracie out. When I gave Gracie the vienna sausages, I thought Mimi was going to pop. When I played ball with Gracie in front of Mimi's crate, Mimi started thrashing and barking!

So every time I got Mimi out of her crate, she had very little emotional energy left for worrying about scary agility trial monsters. It was all about Mimi! Me! Me! Me! Play with me, not that stupid bitch, who I would kill if you gave me half a chance. Meeee! It's all about meeee!

DSL suggested that what I did was interrupt the tape loop that Mimi has been running in her head at trials and replaced it with some weird amalgamation of Mimi's obsession with me, her sister, and agility, in that order.

Operation Jealousy, Day 2. You know, if taunting my dog and using her obsessions is what it takes, then I will continue to do it. Gracie certainly had a great time today with all of the attention and play.

In the meantime, I couldn't be happier with Mimi's success.

Here's video from our Standard run. Not pretty, but we got the job done. Thank goodness we aren't judged on style points. Oh, and I should mention that the old Mimi would never have played with a toy in her crate (that's her first place prize from Jumpers). She surprised me by doing it so I grabbed the camera and filmed her.

2 comments:

Anne SLC said...

Nice job. I'm sure you're very happy and relieved.

Good luck the rest of the weekend.

Oh, Skeeter LOVED Mimi's squeaky toy... she jumped right up from a dead sleep and jumped on my lap to see what the heck it was!

Rover Mom said...

I want to see video of Mimi's thrashing!

Congratulations! Can't wait to hear about day 2.

-DSL