It was snowy. It was windy. It was biting cold. All morning. As one of my fellow competitors said to me as we sat shivering in the bleachers in the barn, "Winter is what really separates out the serious agility folks from the rest...." Meanwhile, down at Beaver Lake, the die-hards amongst the Trailblazers braved the elements and went for a walk on the wild side. (Thanks, Peni, for the pictures below.)
Abby, Zack and I arrived bright and early at the barn, that is to say, hours before we actually had to run, because they had to have their height measurements taken again. Unfortunately, that's a task that is done bright and early in the day. Like at about 7:30 a.m. But we don't have to do that again for AAC — we've now had measurements taken twice, by two different judges, so we're all set. No surprises: they both run at the 10-inch height.
We had two runs for each dog today. First off, we took a gamble on Starters Gamblers. I thought it might be premature to try them out on this one, as it requires distance work, but we gave it a go anyway. We failed miserably, although Zack started off OK. He even completed the first mini-gamble. But it was all downhill from there. He went off on an exploratory trip to the far end of the barn and pretty much never got back in the game. For her part, Abby didn't seem to want to play this game at all.
More long hours of waiting, and then it was time for the Starters Standard course. Zack was first onto the course and suddenly decided that he didn't like the dogwalk—a piece of equipment he normally never has trouble with. But he sure didn't like THIS dogwalk. After much persuasion, we finally continued our run, but encountered similar (but expected) reluctance at the teeter. After that, however, he was off to the races, and finished the rest of the course just fine. When it was her turn, Abby showed up her little brother: she ran clean but incurred some minor time faults. Not bad, as I thought we were in for a repeat of Zack's run as she also seemed reluctant about the dogwalk. The dogwalk was the third obstacle on the course, so this didn't bode well. But she finally slunk up the ramp, did a little nervous looking over the edge from time to time as she slowly made her way across it, and then picked up speed as she hit the down ramp. From there on, she was just fine.
I don't know what it is about that dogwalk. It's red and yellow as opposed to the blue and yellow one they're used to; it probably was set at a higher height that we normally practice on. Abby's worried peering over the edge of it once she was at the top makes me think that this might be what was disconcerting for them. Someone also suggested that since Zack had been having doubts about the teeter as of late, perhaps he perceived the up-ramp of the dogwalk set at a similar steeper angle as the teeter, and that was what was putting him off.
But...none of that matters. We're there to have fun and to meet challenges, and they're doing just fine in that regard. Day 3 tomorrow. I'll keep you posted!
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