SOLSTICE SUCCESS

The stars aligned for Abby on the weekend, at AVID's AAC agility trial. It was perfect weather for the event—not too hot, a bit of a breeze, and equal helpings of sun and cloud. There was one downpour on Sunday afternoon to help cool things off and wet things down, but for the most part, any threatening weather seemed to nibble around the edges of the fairgrounds but not actually come directly overhead.

Both Abby and Zack did five runs this weekend, with Abby pulling off two Qs, one on Saturday in Starters Snooker, and one on Sunday, in Starters Jumpers. She almost had a third one on Saturday...she was just under time in her Standard run, but she missed her contact on the second to last obstacle. In general, though, she had an excellent weekend. She had none of those "stalls" that she normally throws in, where she just stops dead for no apparent reason. She stayed focused and on-course. Zack still seems to be struggling with finding his 'second gear'; he's motoring around the course, but not quickly. And I'm assuming that he's committed to obstacles when he hasn't, which gives us refusal faults. On the plus side, he's taking less time to get over the teeter, which is great. It's still not his favourite obstacle, but at least he's getting more confident about doing it.

Gemma was along for the ride, and had a great time meeting all the different dogs and their people as we walked around the grounds. We had set up the pop-up shelter for the weekend, and the dogs had both their wire crate and the x-pen to lounge around in. I kept the crate there as Zack will just pop out of the pen if he decides he has some motive for doing so. The girls seemed quite content to have the option of the crate, with the extra space of the pen to move around in, if the spirit moved them. It was nice and cool in the tent, with the shade-cloths hung up on two sides. We were set up in a great location with an excellent vantage point from which to relax in my chair and watch the goings-on in the ring. I'd occasionally pop up to take some pictures; you can find a selection of them at my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26205675@N07/ .