We headed down to Washington on Friday for a couple of hours of lessons with Scott Glen. The topic: penning. In the history of sheepdoggery, I do not know that there is a more inept penner than I. Of course, in the past, I've blamed my failure to pen every year at Calgary on my dogs, but since they've started to livestream the event, that lie will no longer hold up. Thus ... two hours of penning lessons.
Scott was very patient with me, and he's also got a great sense of humour. He actually got Lou to bend on a close at hand flank, something that dog hasn't done in about 5 years. And then New Rex came out with his fancy stops and pace and shizzle, and he did well too. He even got right underneath the lamb's nose as she was grazing, and that lamb still has a nose! My god! Have we turned a corner?
As much as I would have loved to stay at Fido's Farm for the weekend, it was off to Elma, for the RAT agility trial. I haven't run USDAA in, like, forever. I want to say it's been 6 years, but it might be even longer. Wick was entered in the tournament classes only because I can't remember where she was in the titling program from 6 years ago. Rex was entered in everything because I knew he must be in Starters.
It was quite a successful weekend for both dogs. Wick had a nice run in Steeplechase, or Performance Speed Jumping, or whatever it's called, but she had an off-course. She also ran a really nice Grand Prix, but got called for a refusal on the 3rd from last obstacle. Drats!!!
Rex did quite well too. He Q'ed all of his Starters games classes and got a Steeplechase Q to boot! That was pretty cool, especially since we had a big bobble in that run. Thank goodness for running a-frames! He missed both DWs in Standard, so I'm going to have to figure out how to fix that. Still, he was fine with the tire, didn't jump the chute, and overall exceeded my expectations.
Best part of the weekend was seeing people I haven't seen in, well, 6 years! Also got to meet a lot of people I've only known through Facebook. Oh, and thanks to my Nexus card, there were no border line-ups. A pretty good weekend altogether!
Here's a mash-up of most of Rex's runs. Thanks for reading!
