Amazing Agil-Gimme

Gimme did so well in class tonight.

We started with our calming mat work and she did very well.  We set up in the same place, then a horse came out of the run behind us and was challenging.  A short bit of "whazzat" and Gimme ignored him from then on.  Then one of the other students brought her dog from the car to the area between us and the building - continually playing and tugging in a barking, whipping frenzy.  Naturally that was a LOT for Gimme to deal with just thirty feet away.  Still she held it all together and did admirably.  We played "whazzat" as needed and then she proceeded to mostly ignore the dog - though I noticed when she laid down on her mat again, it was diagonal so she could keep one eye on that crazy border collie.  So then what should happen, but the pony comes to the front of his stall to one side of us (turns out it was actually a dwarf horse).  That elicited a couple barks, then she was able to work me for goodies.

I was very happy that through all this, she did not once pull the leash straight.  She stood up a few times and expressed her concern, while still showing SELF-control.  It wasn't me imposing control, maybe helping her a bit, but she chose to work with me over and over again.  She makes me very proud.  Honestly after that prolonged gauntlet of what is supposed to be our calming prep time, I wasn't expecting her to do that well during her actual run.

Instead she was the Amazing Agility-Gimme girl.  I could not have been happier.  Every mistake was either clearly mine or something she was not ready for yet.  In several places on course, she did things we'd not yet trained for.  She started the course with a really oblique angle to the first jump, for the first time.  Many dogs when first exposed to that will come around the jump - it never occurred to Gimme to bypass that jump.  Even though we haven't really done much with the teeter in the last couple of weeks, she went over it and slammed it to the ground without the least bit of concern (several times, in fact).  I wasn't expecting her to transfer her chute training yesterday to this strange chute, but she went right through it... slightly slower, but without hesitation.  Then she went on to do the weave poles beautifully.  She had a bobble or two, but when she got them - She Got Them - all TWELVE of them!  Remember from the video, we are only training four poles at this point.

Blynn is great to train with.  She picks up things in my handling that I'm not aware of, explains it in a way I can understand and do, and when I get it right, then Gimme is right too.  Gimme has so much natural talent for agility, its amazing.  Even things that go wrong the first time, when we repeat them - she just leaps ahead of where her understanding should be and does it right.  Based on how well Gimme did, Blynn is under the mistaken conclusion that we did a lot more training than actually happened.  I should also point out that these are not simple courses - they are world team level challenges.  Gimme sure makes me look good. 

Gimme was great with seeing the other dogs as we were moving around outside the building.  For our second run, we were in a time crunch to get everyone another run, so there was overlapping during entry/exit.  Thus there was a dog on course when we moved out there... which Gimme noticed and then turned to me demanding I pay up.  Likewise as we were leaving another dog was entering the arena and she acted the same way. 

She is such a smarty pants and it shows.  Have I mentioned that before?