Mimi and Gracie, My Agility Queens

Last month, there was a local outdoor, evening USDAA trial. It was held at the same facility where Mimi had her meltdown last year. I was very hesitant about entering her at all but decided to enter her in Jumpers only the first night and Jumpers and Gamblers the second night. Both of those are pretty simple games that are well within her abilities. Even if Gamblers proved to be too scary, I figured I could at least get her around one or both of the Jumpers courses.

With Mimi's continued (but lessening) anxiety about amplifiers and speakers, it may be a while before I can play Snooker again with her. All of the clubs out here have the judges use wireless mics and speakers to call points and Snooker is all about points. But as far as I know, Gracie has no such anxiety so I entered Gracie in Jumpers, Gamblers, and Snooker both nights.

I couldn't let go of my stress and worry about losing my job and the first night was not a good one for us. Gracie did Q in Starters Jumpers but our other runs were unsuccessful.

I was particularly disappointed with Mimi's Jumpers run on Friday night. She was doing fine walking around the place and didn't seem to have any memory of what happened last year. She was barely flicking her ears at noises that in the past have melted her into a quivering blob in her crate. I got her to the start line and she seemed happy enough. But the weather was unsettled and just as she was entering obstacle three, the tunnel, there was a large clap of thunder. Mimi panics during storms. I ran to the tunnel exit and grabbed her just as she came out and ran off the course with her in my arms. I am not sure she even heard the thunder since she was in the tunnel but I couldn't know if there would be more and I just couldn't risk her having another meltdown associated with agility.

I left that night very upset, feeling that I had not been able to focus on the courses and that I had not done right by my girls. I didn't know how to stop worrying about money, job, house, health insurance, food....

The next evening as we were getting settled in for the second night, I went up to Debbie and said, I think I am my own worst enemy. This was the opening she had been waiting for, it seems. She had a little talk all prepared for me. I listened carefully then turned her suggestions over and over in my head. I thought she was right on target. I needed to make the effort to make this work for us.

And that second night, Gracie Q'd in Snooker and Jumpers again, and Mimi Q'd in Gamblers and Jumpers. Four Q's out of five attempts. Plus, that Jumpers Q also earned Mimi her Starters Jumpers title.

Here's Gracie's Snooker course (sorry for the poor quality scan, my course maps get kind of mangled after being stuffed in sweaty pockets for hours):


I decided to make it easy on both of us and do the #5 tunnel three times (red-tunnel-another red-tunnel-third red-tunnel) then complete the closing (obstacles 2 through 7 in that order). I handled the hell out of this course, turning it into a thing of beauty. Gracie simply nailed it. Perfect execution, read every one of my crosses and responded correctly, showed a lot of drive and speed. I had such a fun time out there with her.

But the really neat part was Jumpers. Mimi placed first with a Q...and her sister placed second with a Q! They were the only two 16" Starters dogs to Q. And get this: Mimi's time was 27.369 seconds and her sister's was 27.958 seconds. I have no idea how Debbie knew to pan over to the final time after both runs, but I'm so glad she filmed both of these runs for me.

First up was Mimi. You can see that she appeared to be pretty happy at the start line although she did flinch at the electronic "GO". She went around the first jump and was doing a lot of sniffing, both of which are usual signs of stress for her. And I almost sent her over the wrong jump there in the middle of the course!

Four dogs later, it was Gracie's turn. I barely had time to praise and treat Mimi and get her settled back in her crate, then get Gracie up to the start line--Jumpers classes move quickly. Gracie was doing some sniffing during the run too, but in her case it is because she is green and inexperienced. The sniffing slowed us down but she maintained pretty decent speed, considering this was her second agility trial ever!