Agility Girlie

The most exciting thing to report about agility class, isn't agility per se.

A long time ago I brought one of my expens to the class location for our use and its been really handy.  Since then Blynn has taken to using it for all the classes.  That way we can form an expen bubble (for the hold) right at the giant sliding arena doors.  It saves trying to move those things or having to come through the side door and speeds up getting in and out.  Usually the sliding doors are open just far enough to squeeze in and the expen forms a 4x4 foot enclosure - the hold.

So Gimme and I were in the hold watching the dog before us running and practicing "whazzat" whenever it was in the near end of the arena.  At the end of its run, the BC jumped the last jump and then ran full tilt toward us, heading for the water bowl, just 8 feet away.  Gimme watched intently, but did not do anything inappropriate, no vocalizations or anything.  When she was satisfied that all was well, she turned to me and gave the look that sez, "more treats please."  I was just thrilled at this clear evidence of the progress she's made this summer.

As for our run, there were some good things and some not so good.  For the first time Gimme let me converge on her line and didn't push out around the next jump.  So she is getting more comfortable with the understanding that coming into my space (and vice versa) is a good thing.

Her weaves appeared to be irreparably broken, until we figured out what was going on.  Suddenly she has decided to turn up the speed another notch and I was still moving at the old speed.  In looking toward me to see what I was doing, it was causing her to pop out.  When I got my pace right and smooth, she did fine and significantly faster.

She got a couple of really tough weave entries, though having difficulty holding onto them afterward. To motivate her to work harder at holding on, I showed her the goodies I had and then set her up for another try.  She nailed it and blazed through to the end.  Then she demanded her pork loin.  She's never been shy about such things...

Ya gotta love her 'tude...