We just finished a crazy but worthwhile NADAC weekend. How crazy was it? Here’s the short version:

• I get totally lost on the way to the trial
• Jayda got carsick from me driving around in circles
• Missed Bryce’s first run, get there just in time to walk Jayda’s course. Jayda starts well but heads for the ring gates 2 jumps from the end. (I got her back but we were way over time). She gets a 4th place ribbon for the effort.
• An over-enthusiastic Bryce blows a Chances run
• Bryce and I have an amazing, if exhausting double shot of Touch N Go, finishing his TG-N with 1 leg to spare with 2 first place runs – 2 back-to-back runs of a 188 yard course!!!!
• We leave. On the way home while driving on the turnpike a (big!) bird flies into my windshield (no damage, except to the poor bird)!
• Day #2 begins with a wrong course on an otherwise very nice Regular course.
• We mess up a Jumpers run and a Chances run.
• Jayda starts another jumpers course nicely… until we reach a sequence of jumps headed towards the ring gates, where she kept going.This is a new one for me – a stressed Sally meant circling, spinning, or offering obstacles; a stressed Bryce goes hunting for edible micro-garbage on the ground. Stressed Jayda leaves! She didn’t show any sign of looking BACK to the ring gates while heading away from them, but sequences heading towards them are something we definitely need to address.
• Bryce runs tunnelers and Q’s to finish his TN-E despite a brief stop to sniff goose-poop.
• Jayda runs tunnelers and finishes the whole course without leaving the ring! Of course, I didn’t give her much of a chance to leave – I was right on top of her the whole time. She doesn’t like that – it slowed her down and made her spin inside a tunnel, but it kept her on course. She finished 3rd, just over course time.

All in all, a rather strange, but pretty decent trial weekend. The weather was beautiful (if a little cold) and it was a great day to be out with the dogs. Here’s a picture of “baby” Jayda with her first ribbons!

… and Bryce “The Man” with his ribbon collection (and his duck) …

Some dogs are resource guarders – they fiercely protect their toys, their food, even their people. Everything around them is “mine, mine, mine” …

Not so Bryce and Jayda. One of the things I love about them is that they happily share their food, posessions or my attention with family and strangers alike. Here they are sharing one of those dairy milk extractors (those black rubber thingies that were THE Border Collie Toy several years ago). They were each nibbling on their own end of it (until they saw the camera).

No matter how many dogs you train or how long you’ve been doing agility, there’s a dreaded moment that rolls around ever so often – it’s that day you run your new dog in a trial for the very first time!

I had Jayda entered in jumpers both days but scratched her on Saturday – it was VERY windy, things were blowing all over the trial site and she was pretty freaked out about it. I found a place where she felt comfortable and she managed to settle in there (and eat a lot of cookies) , but I didn’t want to push my luck by running her.

Sunday was much better. I also decided to try walking her around on a harness – good move. It made her more secure because if something did happen to spook her she didn’t choke herself and make the situation even scarier. So she spent Sunday in what used to be her big sister Sally’s tracking harness .

By the time Jumpers rolled around, she seemed pretty comfortable though, as our luck would have it, a FOOTBALL GAME or something was in progress nearby – complete with marching band and DRUMS! She wasn’t happy about THAT, but I think I was more nervous than she was – I had 3 people ready to catch her (or shoo her back to me) just in case she happened to make a run for the ring gates!

The run wasn’t a stunning success, but it wasn’t a disaster either. She took the first 3 jumps at a good speed (actually, faster than I was expecting :)!) , missed a tunnel entrance, zoned out and stared at her surroundings a little, came AROUND the tunnel, then went into the correct end. When she came out she had another “moment” (probably heard the marching band!) and started trotting the general direction of the end of the ring, but I was able to call her back to me before she got halfway there. That led to little mess at the weave entrance, then she did the rest of the course cleanly (just a couple little bobbles) and pretty quickly.

At the end, my “dogcatchers” greeted us (with her treats) and we had a BIG party :). Considering how few times she’s ever done agility outdoors, I was VERY happy with that! And considering all the stuff she ate, it’s a good thing she has the same bombproof gut as Bryce!

This has been one h*ll of a year and it isn’t even October yet!

Since this time last year I’ve had a bad shoulder injury, broken my toe and worst of all, said an unexpected goodbye to Sally – my dear friend and companion of almost 15 years. Seen below (center) in the last picture I have of her with Jayda (left) and Bryce (right) on Jayda’s birthday at the end of April.

So now Bryce and Jayda are learning how to be just “Bryce and Jayda”. They’re having a lot of fun together but it’s really strange – for the first time in over 15 years I’m in charge around here! Not that I wasn’t before, but there was always a layer of “middle management” taking care of everyday doggy decisions like “Should we bark at that neighbor” or “Should we play or take a nap now” or “Is the trash collector allowed to steal our stuff”? Neither of these two seems in any hurry to take control of those situations so they’ve been following me around CONSTANTLY and Bryce especially still seems a little “lost”. My money is on Jayda to emerge as the eventual leader – the cats seem to have already voted her into that role with ‘Bika now throwing herself against Jayda’s ankles in greeting the same way she used to greet Sally.

(Jayda, Bryce … and Bryce’s “Yucky Duck”. When you see Bryce, you can be sure his beloved ducky is never far away!)

So slowly but surely we’re picking up the pieces – here’s hoping things get better from here!