We started off the day with Novice FAST. I had a nice little plan in mind, but scraped it once I saw that a good part of the course was under water. I wasn't really impressed with any of the options we had to get points, so I decided instead to just use this run as a little warm up. Peyton was a little on the high-side, but not too bad...
Next was Open JWW - this was a tricky course to begin with, but add a little water to the mix and yuck. He actually handled the opening very well, but put on the breaks when I sent him to the jump after the weaves. Not sure, but I think he might have questioned my reasoning for sending him into a lake (did I mention he's *not* a fan of water?). Then as I tried to get ahead, I sent him to an off-course jump. Bad handler! Had I been a little more patient after the tunnel, I think I could have salvaged this run for a Q, but he took another off-course. Oh well, I was pretty happy he got his feet wet, literally. :)
Our last run of the day was Excellent Standard - this ring was in much better shape, but at this point I think Peyton was a tad bit stressed. Actually, it wasn't a bad run - it just felt very disconnected. I think we ended up with just one refusal at the weaves. On a good note, he held all of his contacts! Too bad that's a sign that he's not running as happy as usual. :)
As for Pongo, he's been doing about the same. He can stand on his own as long as I get all of his feet placed where they need to be and he can walk with a little bit of assistance. He seems like he feels okay, although I think he's pretty frustrated that his legs aren't cooperating. We had a little incident today though and I hope it's not going to be a big set back. I left the trial in between our JWW and Standard runs to go home and check on him and found him sprawled out on the tile in "his" room, struggling to get up. Apparently he was feeling rather ambitious and escaped his pool area - even though I put all of my dining room chairs around it thinking it would keep him in. I just feel terrible! :(
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Overall, I'm really pretty happy with Peyton's runs, but it does bother me to see him stressing. I know a lot of it has to do with his trial inexperience, but I'm sure my stressing over Pongo isn't helping. Tomorrow I'm hoping that I won't have to be gone too long and will be definitely be putting Pongo in Peyton's crate so I don't have to worry about my little escape artist!
On a sour note, it's raining *again* and we're supposed to have more rain tomorrow, so we might have to find some flippers before our runs! :)
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3 comments:
Ick! I don't blame him. I would hate to run in water too! He did decently in the last run, it's just too bad the water had him so stressed and distracted by the point, but I guess that's how you get experience.
I'm glad Pongo is feeling better. I hope his legs start cooperating again. Does he seem to be in pain or does it appear to be neurological?
Poor Peyton! He needs to come to PA, where we usually run agility indoors in climate-controlled buildings with artificial turf or rubber matting surfaces. I'm sure that neither of my spoiled girls would have run on that waterlogged Jumpers course!!
Thanks for the update on Pongo. I hope that the fact that he escaped from his pool means that he's feeling better, even if he's not quite realizing his limitations right now. It's good that his spirit is strong. He's a cool old boy, and we're sending all our healing mojo his way!
Lisa and the Spoiled Spotties!
I don't think he's in pain...I do think he gets tired easily because any moving is hard work. And definitely neurological - his brain isn't quite connecting to his feet yet.
And Lisa, I'm all for climate control! Although I'm not sure how he'd manage on some of the indoor surfaces...sure would beat rain though!! :)
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