First Q!

We went to Medicine Hat this weekend for an AAC Agility trial. The weather was perfect- the field was great, and the courses were very fun! Wicca ran awesome and got her first Qualifying Run! - She got 37 points in her opening and got the gamble no problem. That allowed her to move up for today into Advanced Gamblers and she did pretty good. I have quite a bit to learn about her yet but it's coming. Her jumpers rounds were very fast- one of them was just over 20 seconds! Only one or two knocked bars becuase of my handling. Her snooker- well...lets just say if they had a prize for fastest time and no points we would have won. Right away we got tweeted off the first one and the second one today we were doing not too bad until I was a bit late on a signal and TWEET!.....But overall we had a blast. We worked on start lines- her contacts were even better this time- no more creeping, and the barking is almost non-existent.
I finally got to run a steeplechase and what fun Kate and I had! It was a great course- lots of room to run with only a few tight spots- she nailed her weave poles and didn't miss any contacts. It was her best run in over a year. Kate's other two runs weren't spectacular- I still find myself disapointed when she messes up on course and even though I try hard to tell her what a good girl she is and keep it happy she is reading my body language or something and it's not long until our run goes from so-so to bad and then worse- she actually left the ring today. I got her back of course but she obviously found the ring to be too stressful. Usually Kate does her best at this trial- she likes the venue I guess...But we did hae one good run which is good for Kate. And we placed second out of 5 dogs in one of the other classes so overall she did pretty good. I did find that she was more stressed than usual- very anxious about being in the kennel- actually bent the door on the wire crate. I think I may stick to one day events with her from now on- no more traveling. We'll see.....
I took Sam just to get him out and he was great. He is really good around other dogs now- able to focus when there are lots of distraction and I got a few really good training sesssions in with him. We worked on heeling- downs and practiced some tricks- I am teaching him Wave and it is very cute with his stubby little legs.
Anyway- I am going to a Kathy Keats seminar on friday with Wicca and I am really looking forward to it. It should be lots of fun and a great learning experience- for both of us....