Who's Shaping Who?

I have a bad habit of making really ridiculous sounds at my dog. No, really, it's rather excessive. It's worse if I get a reaction out of him, like a tail wag, because then I make weirder sounds and increase the volume, rate, and range. Kind of sounds like increasing criteria, huh? Gosh I need new hobbies.

Anyway!

On to an official agility re-cap.

Friday: Today there were only Excellent runs, standard and jumpers with weaves. Lots of great dogs, of course. The people I had already met (remember, old enough to be my mother) kept telling me "These are the college level dogs!" Hahaha, funny joke. Once. Kinda. Not all day. They ran small to tall, so I missed a few papillons and the two miniature schnauzers that I had wanted to see. But then, oh heavens, the border collies! I loved seeing all the different breeds that ran, but NOTHING compares to a GOOD border collie running agility. So FAST! There was one blue merle that was three to four obstacles ahead of his handler. It was a good run to illustrate how important handling is, they didn't Q because the handler couldn't keep up or direct from a distance. Right after that though was bi-black that was an example of excellent handling. They were amazing to watch, ran a perfect course, and were well under time until the handler called her off the final jump into his arms. Why? the crowd buzzed. Word soon spread, that morning there was a border collie speciality nearby. There is apparently some rule about Q'ing at two seperate events in the same day. General consensus was that this is a good rule, although I'm not sure why. Last dogs to run were a sable German Shepard and a Belgian Malinois, and then I helped set up for the next day's JWW.

Saturday: I was in and out all day, I had a lot of other errands to do. This was the one I got pictures at! Only a few and from one spot because I was very very nervous of being told off, but I got them. They are at the end, but first I want to talk about this kid: This is them clearing the final jump to qualify in Novice A standard, but I saw them run JWW Novice A first. He was walking the course, planning his crosses and I happened to be standing next to his mom at the time. She doesn't like the decision he's making at one of the turns and starts shouting directions at him. Not meanly, just, "Hey son do it this way!" The other moms are counselling her to let him figure it out on his own (which he should, and eventually did). Walkthrough is over, and then it's their turn to run. The dog, who is more experienced than the handler, tears it up. Zoom zoom zoom. Kid's doing well keeping up, too. At a far turn coming back towards the spectators, Kid goes down. Dog keeps running. Kid pops up, pulls Dog off wrong jump at last possible second, and the dog zooms through the rest of the course, largely in spite of any handling Kid is doing. Not that he's doing a bad job, but Dog can clearly read the numbers on the obstacles. It was something to see, let me tell you! (They qualified, to much ribbing of Kid's mother). Their standard run went more smoothly, and they qualified there too.

Pug on a teeter!

It was very cold. And then it snowed. @#$% Wisconsin. >[

For all the shelties that were there, no two looked anything a like.

Coming down the home stretch now, it's down the dog walk and over the jump to Q!