Video!
Thanks again to Jen K, who very took video of four of our runs on Saturday (it was ridiculously hot and humid, then cold and drizzly by Sunday) – and then figured out how to send them to me so I can download them and save them, since Flip videos are now getting deleted after 30 days.
This video shows NINA HOLDING HER START LINE STAY LIKE A CHAMPION (at the first run of the trial, no less)! A good Fullhouse run, lots of points, but all I cared about was that we FINALLY had a start line stay at a trial again – and the next day she stayed EVERY SINGLE TIME! I expect I will probably have to pull her again, but this is just HUGE for us! I set her up way back and at an angle, but she sat and stayed!
This is Nina’s Jumpers run. I had pulled her from one class already for not sitting at the start. I should have pulled her here also, although she did at least pause (SUNDAY SHE HELD HER STAY EVERY TIME! FOUR SIT STAYS WITH LEADOUTS NO LESS!). Especially enjoy the bit right near the beginning when she scuttles on her back legs like one of those lizards. This was a fairly nice run aside from the start, we were really communicating well for most of it, although you can hear her bark at me a few times when I’m not clear about where she’s going next, I am happy with my timing on most of my crosses as well. This was a pretty complicated course for CPE, even taking into account that it was level 4/5/C.
This is Tish’s first-ever run at a trial – it was Fullhouse and we got a whopping 5 points or something, but she did work with me a little bit and it wasn’t too bad for a VERY green dog in a new place with a whole new environment. She’s coming to one more trial for fun (outdoors this time) and then she probably won’t trial again until she’s actually mostly ready. Her tail was up and wagging the whole time.
This is Tish’s first-ever qualifying run in her first-ever trial! This was a Snooker run and we got a triple seven plus the first obstacle in the course, for 26 points. Running a dog who isn’t trial ready by ANY stretch of the imagination is a bit excruciating (I entered her because I am bad about getting to matches and I’ve been trialing so much I haven’t really made the time, and level 1 CPE is great for very green dogs since the courses are very simple and there’s no teeter and no weaves), but she stayed with me better than she did in our very first run, which is the previous video – Fullhouse. Tish loves everyone and had to go and visit everyone, so the runs were sort of “do an obstacle, visit a ring steward, do an obstacle, visit the judge…). I need to remember to make my cues much bigger and slower for her, and I should be asking her to down stay at the start like I do in class, but this looks much better than I was worried it actually was.