BETTY BOPS THE BARN!

It was a long day at the Fairgrounds, but a great one for our very own Betty Boop! Peni dipped her toes (and Betty's paws) into the AAC agility pool on Sunday, putting into practice all their hard work over the past few years, bolstered by a couple of recent insightful lessons with France Jackson from AVID.

While their first run of the day, a Starters Standard course went well, Peni and Betty took a bit more time to navigate around the obstacles then the course allowed, and Betty ran into her nemesis—the teeter—which gave them a fault when Peni had to finally manually lower the teeter so that Betty could move on to the next obstacle.

Next on their dance card was the Starters Gamblers run. They rocked! Made it look like a walk in the park. See below for Betty's very first Q (qualifying score) in AAC agility, which also earned them a first place ribbon in Betty's jump height division. I shot this on my still camera, so it's not the best video...but you get the idea.

Finally, to end their day, Betty and Peni tackled the Starters Jumpers course and ran a similarly smooth course from start to finish, and again pulled out a Q and another first place in Betty's height division. Way to go, gals!

On the Silky Terrier side of things, Abby ran fast in her Advanced Standard run, but unfortunately decided to make up a couple of variations on the course that the judge hadn't intended, so she notched a few faults. Overall, though, she ran the course very nicely. She then nailed her Advanced Gamblers run, and brought home her first Q ribbon at the Advanced level. She ran a little too slowly (about two seconds worth too slow) on her Advanced Jumpers course, but ran it cleanly. Overall, she seems to be really hitting her stride in terms of confidence and speed. It's great to see her doing so well. Zack continues to struggle; lots of zip...until he hits the start line and then it seems like he's got glue on his paws slowing him down as he makes his way around each course. Will have to discover how to re-motivate him so that he gets back to his winning ways! These past six months have been a bit of a struggle for him, after he hit a peak at the ScallyWaggs "Howlaween" trial last October. He's such a good little dog; I just can't figure out what's going on in his head right now. So we'll just work this through with him.