Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

I haven't posted about Cookie for ages because I haven't being doing much with Cookie for ages!  That poor Munsterlander has been stuck at home.  Our indoor agility classes ended at the end of April and I didn't get into the swing of things outdoors until the last two weeks.  Our outdoor training has been frustrating to say the least!  So when the 2X4 Trial rolled around this weekend I wasn't expecting much!

On Saturday we started with a good jumpers run  we had 15 faults plus some over time... not to bad considering the first obstacle was the chute.  Stupid chute that one is so hard off the line.  The next two runs were standards.  Uggg STUPID TABLE it's the bane of our existence!!  No deal he won't lay on that table there.  Hopefully once we use a different table at some different venues through the summer he will have the confidence to do the table at that arena.  He will do on the Go Dog Go table so I'm not sure what to do!  I welcome suggestions!  Our last run of the day was a gamble... I totally blew this one.  He did so awesome in the opening... he got the mini gamble worth 10 points which was a teeter to a tunnel (I didn't think he would do it).  The final gamble was 3 jumps... I was so shocked that he went out to the second jumped that I stopped.  Stupid me!!  If I had just kept going he would have come back to me over the third jump and we would have gotten it!  

Sunday started with a gamble... we were a disaster in the opening.  I picked a bad route and we didn't get enough points.  Which really sucked because HE DID THE FINAL GAMBLE!!  Stupid, stupid, stupid me!!  We should have gotten our second gamble Q at this trial.  Not that I'm excited to move up but I'm disappointed that I blew it both times.  We had two more standards which featured the dreaded table... I decided to just have a party when he jumped on the table and move on.  This worked well because he wasn't demotivated for the rest of the run and we had fun at least.  Our final run of the day was a second jumpers.  It was going GREAT until the  last jump.  Damn dog decided he didn't want to do that one.  That one was all dog... so one jump away and we would have Q'd that run!

You know what they say close only counts in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades!!  So no Q's this weekend but a glimmer of hope that we CAN and WILL get some very soon!!!  I think once he starts he will be unstoppable!  At least until we move up a level...

Thanks to Alberta Agility Pictures (on FB) for capturing this pic of Cookie!