We had a good day and I'm exhausted. Gimme apparently is not tired, since she keeps bringing me toys.
For our first Open run, Gimme did a good job, finding both rat tubes and coming away with 2nd place. One of the rat tube placements was kinda challenging. She wasn't blazing fast, but still came in at 35.41 seconds under course time. On her second run, she just couldn't find the second tube, though she never stopped looking.
In hindsight, I don't think I kept her hydrated well enough during the day - which is crucial for any kind of scent work. Those nasal passages have to be really moist to do their best work. On the way back to the car after our second run, Gimme drank a lot at a puddle. Thus I realized I hadn't made sure she drank enough water during the day. We just got home minutes ago and she was insistent I fill her bowl immediately and she polished it all off. I'm putting some of the leftover chicken stock cartons in the car (I got them when she was at the kennel last November). They are easy to store, I can use them to add flavor to her water to ensure she drinks water during the day.
I also plan to make another modification to her Barn Hunt harness...
just a simple change so it will come off easily in the ring. The
new rules go into effect in June and we can be penalized for delay
before and after the run.
Gimme did a great job responding to "Thank you, find another one". Each time, she took off to look for another rat. However, when she saw the rat wrangler taking the tube she just found, she came back and bounced up and down, offering to take the rat to our car.
Now she and I have a date with the couch.
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