Sitting in a livestock barn and I can see my breath.
My Facebook status Saturday morning from McGregor. A friend said it was the first line of a country song. Man was it cold. The arctic freeze had broken the pipes in the barn and the bathrooms were closed. Frank was on a business trip and I endured the agony alone.
Lessons Learned
Maggie does not have the stamina to do a full day of NADAC agilty, though Friday night she was smokin'. She started Saturday very well, but petered out very quickly. Saturday lasted 11 hours and I petered out a bit too. Sunday, she did the first run and that was it. She sniffed and sniffed and wouldn't run. I scratched her the rest of the day. Not sure if she has low stamina from the heartworms she had or if the stress is too much for her.
I was so jazzed Friday night after our performances that I entered Maggie in the High In Trial competition. Laughable now. At the hotel, the past came up to bite me in the butt. A handler told me that a judge had sought her out to ask her if she wanted to file a complaint against me at the last show. She didn't and I thanked her, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. Reality slapped me in the face and it changed me for the rest of the weekend. We were going to work on things no matter what.
Shane exhibited his usual behavior on Saturday and I decided to follow my trainer's advice and stop as soon as he lost focus. On his first tunnels run, which he just loves, he stopped before the last tunnel when a dog barked in the distance. Previously, I would get him back to finish the last tunnel and that's when he would do something bad. So this time, I stopped him and we left the ring. I'm sure people thought I was nuts to throw away a Q like that, but I was determined. I continued to stop him when his lost focus until the very last run of the weekend. He was magnificent. The judge even said "good job" at one point and I cannot even describe how much that meant to me. After all the reprimands I've received, to have a judge compliment me was just the world.
So from here, I think Maggie might be an AKC dog. Two runs a day and we go home. Shane might be a NADAC dog since there are lots of runs with no jumps and barking dogs are few and far between. I'll have to stop myself from entering everything and just pick the runs where we'll have fun and be successful.
I realized dropping Maggie to 12 inch Skilled put her in direct competition with Shane. Luckily, Shane screwed up enough to let Maggie get some ribbons. She finished her Novice Jumpers title and Shane finished his Novice Touch N Go title. We froze and had to use porta-potties, but it was a grand weekend for us.
My Facebook status Saturday morning from McGregor. A friend said it was the first line of a country song. Man was it cold. The arctic freeze had broken the pipes in the barn and the bathrooms were closed. Frank was on a business trip and I endured the agony alone.
Lessons Learned
Maggie does not have the stamina to do a full day of NADAC agilty, though Friday night she was smokin'. She started Saturday very well, but petered out very quickly. Saturday lasted 11 hours and I petered out a bit too. Sunday, she did the first run and that was it. She sniffed and sniffed and wouldn't run. I scratched her the rest of the day. Not sure if she has low stamina from the heartworms she had or if the stress is too much for her.
I was so jazzed Friday night after our performances that I entered Maggie in the High In Trial competition. Laughable now. At the hotel, the past came up to bite me in the butt. A handler told me that a judge had sought her out to ask her if she wanted to file a complaint against me at the last show. She didn't and I thanked her, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. Reality slapped me in the face and it changed me for the rest of the weekend. We were going to work on things no matter what.
Shane exhibited his usual behavior on Saturday and I decided to follow my trainer's advice and stop as soon as he lost focus. On his first tunnels run, which he just loves, he stopped before the last tunnel when a dog barked in the distance. Previously, I would get him back to finish the last tunnel and that's when he would do something bad. So this time, I stopped him and we left the ring. I'm sure people thought I was nuts to throw away a Q like that, but I was determined. I continued to stop him when his lost focus until the very last run of the weekend. He was magnificent. The judge even said "good job" at one point and I cannot even describe how much that meant to me. After all the reprimands I've received, to have a judge compliment me was just the world.
So from here, I think Maggie might be an AKC dog. Two runs a day and we go home. Shane might be a NADAC dog since there are lots of runs with no jumps and barking dogs are few and far between. I'll have to stop myself from entering everything and just pick the runs where we'll have fun and be successful.
I realized dropping Maggie to 12 inch Skilled put her in direct competition with Shane. Luckily, Shane screwed up enough to let Maggie get some ribbons. She finished her Novice Jumpers title and Shane finished his Novice Touch N Go title. We froze and had to use porta-potties, but it was a grand weekend for us.
5 Q's Each. Not bad.
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