I just spent some time working on the chute with Raven – it’s one of 2 pieces of equipment which she doesn’t really have down yet and I swore I was going to work on it over the summer. With 2 days before she gets spayed and goes on enforced R&R, I figured better late than never.

I knew all it would take would be to let her chase Jayda through it a couple of times – and I was right. Why not Bryce, you ask? Because Jayda doesn’t care if Raven runs into her/over her/under her. If she ran into Bryce he’d turn around and tell her off – a bit counter-productive, ya think?

It never fails to amaze me how different Jayda is at home when she’s not worried about anything – she’s such a goof! She was deliriously happy to see me set up the chute in the living room and went running through it with such gusto (before I had even finished setting it up) that she got herself tangled a few times. Did it bother her? Nah! I had to be really stern with her to get her to SIT and STAY while I straightened it out properly. She reminds me so much of Sally when she gets like that – it makes me smile.

Anyway, Raven watched Jayda having fun for a while, then ventured through after her, got cheese, watched some more, followed her a couple more times, got more cheese. Then I worked with her solo for a few minutes, alternating reinforcement between cheese and her tuggie. My chute fabric is kind of stiff and I can set it up so the end stays open just a skootch but she still has to push through some fabric to get there. It’s a great training chute! It wasn’t full length – that’s not an option in my house – but pushing through the closed fabric is the issue and I’m pretty sure (based on her typical learning pattern) she will be able to generalize easily to a full-sized chute once she’s comfortable with the basic principles.

We got to the point where she was eagerly running away from me and doing it on her own, and I ended the game while she still wanted to do more. We’ll have another session tomorrow, then hopefully all the fun she’s had with it will percolate around in her little brain during her time off.

This past weekend was “supposed” to be the weekend Bryce finished his C-ATCH. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans!

Saturday was hot and sunny but otherwise OK. Bryce qualified in standard with a nice run. He seemed happy despite the heat, ran well and was over-the-top pleased with himself afterwards, judging from the way he was bouncing around :). So we left Saturday all psyched to get the other 2 Q’s we needed on Sunday – they were saying rain, but not until later in the day. Our classes would run in the morning.

“Later in the day” turned out to be 7:30 AM and it rained hard and steadily throughout the morning, letting up briefly a few times only to start pouring again. We made a valiant attempt at Jackpot – it wasn’t raining too badly as we walked to the line … then about 3 obstacles in, the SKIES opened up on us! Poor Bryce kept going until I had second thoughts about sending him across the dogwalk in that downpour, which made him realize that oh gee I’m getting WET and stop to shake out his fur, which wasted some time and left us 2 points short. Damn!

It wouldn’t have happened anyway because the trial was CANCELLED before our standard run because of the weather! There was thunder, there was lightening, there was torrential rain, there were threats of a tornado. They weren’t kidding – I left just a few minutes before this microburst came through! Nobody was hurt, but scary stuff!

Now for the surprise.

Raven was scheduled for her first-ever run on Sunday early in the morning in Jumpers. Raven who hates rain. Raven who’s such a Sheltie Princess that she won’t leave the porch to pee in the rain and tiptoes around every puddle she sees lest her dainty little tootsies get wet. It wasn’t shaping up to be an auspicious debut.

But the rain slowed to a drizzle, the footing looked safe and I decided to give it a try – she was playing tug with me a little in the parking lot and seemed eager enough to bounce over the practice jump a couple of times. So I brought her in (carrying her over the deepest puddles at the gate), fully expecting this to be over with very quickly.

Darned if she didn’t go out there, cool as a cucumber, run the entire course and QUALIFY! First of my dogs EVER to Q their first time in an agility competition!! It wasn’t perfect – we had a little miscommunication towards the end – but all in all she did a fantastic job for her first time out and I couldn’t have been happier with her.

And she was prancing along in the rain, tail up, playing with her “ratty” again all the way back to the car. Hmmm – sound like a certain uncle of hers?

Sorry, no video – did I mention it was raining? But here’s “Q-bot Junior” posing (in my yard Monday when it wasn’t raining) with her very first ribbons :).

Today is Bryce’s 11th birthday! Last year I wasn’t sure we’d ever see this day, but knock on wood, he’s doing quite well. He’s been on melphalan/prednisone since January – as of his last bloodwork his numbers were still improving and his proteins were almost all within normal range. Don’t know how long the good news will last, we’ll party while we can!

And, as you can see, he still bounces .

(notice at the end of the video – the infamous and ever-present “yucky ducky” in the upper left hand corner)