“Those are all MINE???”
“OK … if no one else is gonna claim ‘em, I guess they are!”
(Don’t laugh at my porch floor. Yes, the color is slightly reminiscent of something the cat yakked up. Believe me, it looked much better on the paint chip!)
This past weekend we went to another NADAC trial, this time on Staten Island. Saturday was freezing cold and very windy – miserable for people, great weather for dogs. Bryce was especially wild Saturday. Sunday was a beautiful, mild fall day – which brought out all the spectators (public park).
First, let me say it’s official: Hell HAS frozen over! Bryce finally got a qualifying score in Weavers, a comfy 10+ seconds under time and a 1st place at that!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Weavers, it’s a course consisting entirely of tunnels and weave poles. Course times are tight and basically the dog is encouraged to run all out through tunnels then has to put on the brakes, check his stride, and successfully complete a set of weaves. There are a minimum of 3 sets of weaves on a course.
Bryce doesn’t find this amusing, hence our prior lack of success at this game.
He also got another qualifying score in Chances, unfortunately that was all he got the entire weekend. He had some other brilliant runs, but there was just “one little thing” that kept him him from qualifying in each of them. The most painful being an Elite Jumpers course, where he went over time by 0.03″!
Jayda had a more productive weekend. She stayed with me and worked every single one of her 8 runs beautifully, qualifying twice in Chances to finish her Novice Chances title (NCC) and qualifying 3 times in Regular to finish her standard Novice title (NAC). She even got a 1st place on Saturday!
(I was going to include a photo of Jayda posing with her ribbons here, but an image sensor in my camera went kablooey and it needs to be sent out for repair so you’ll have to settle for this one of the Terrible Twosome in front of the fireplace)
Sounds good on paper, doesn’t it? But the truth is the poor girl was SO stressed outside the ring the entire weekend! And I do mean really, REALLY stressed – shaking, trying to pull me back to the car in a panic… it’s not any ONE thing, its the WHOLE picture that upsets her. The sounds, the sights … she gets so overwhelmed, poor girl. I’ve tried keeping her busy to try to distract her, feeding her nonstop, massaging her … not sure which if any of these strategies are having an impact.
This is the dog whose tail is wagging ALL the time at home – I hate seeing her unhappy and feel so awful for her. The fact that she’s focusing and coping in the ring is a plus – this weeknd she concentrated on her job every single time she ran. But I’d be much happier to see her really enjoying herself!
Bryce of course has no such issues – to Bryce, life is one big party that starts whenever he gets there!
At a trial this weekend (more about that later) I had a little run-in with a fellow competitor …
Jayda is very adept at dealing with people and other dogs. She is not afraid of people or dogs, but she is VERY environmentally sensitive, and was EXTREMELY stressed about the trial environment (more about THAT later too). I do mean “extremely” – she was hypervigilant of everything that was going on and horribly nervous most of the weekend, poor girl!
I had taken her over to visit some people we know for a minute, and this Other Person’s dog came charging over to her, glued his nose to her butt and wouldn’t take a hint when she tried to avoid him by walking away. He was pretty much pushing her around in circles on the end of his nose…
Normally I would let her handle it, but she had enough to cope with so I gently intervened (didn’t even touch the other dog, just got in his way and shooed him back to his mommy).
At which point, his owner got all huffy and told me (in a rather superior tone) “Don’t do that! HOW’s she going to LEARN about other DOGS ???!!!”
‘Scuse me???
1) She knows quite a lot about other dogs, thank you, and she doesn’t particularly like dogs who can’t take a hint. You’re lucky she was so concerned about the environment or your dog might be missing a nostril or two.
2) Since when does your freakin’ dog have unlimited rights to be rude to mine? My dog has the right to say “no”, and so do I!
Bryce can be a match for anyone in the “rude dogs” category – I keep an eye on him and ask other dogs’ owners if they mind before letting him invade their space. I’m also quick to apologize if he oversteps his welcome – not everyone appreciates his “style”, I don’t take it personally.
3) How DARE you tell me how to raise my kids???!!!
Jackass!