Fun match Nov. 21, 2009

Fun match yesterday, woohoo! It was tons of fun -- great to be able to do actual agility again, not just individual obstacles and short exercises (all that fits in our backyard and basement).

Each dog did one Starters Standard and one Starters Gamblers (there's no way I'd be able to memorize two different courses on the same setup which is why I ran Starters with Mika -- and also to give her a break from all the tough technical courses we've run together all year).

Mika

Starters Standard
I thought Mika was fast before...but this was really fast! I was a bit concerned that she'd have flashbacks from "THE Bad Experience" (on the teeter). That was two and a half years ago at our first ever fun match on April 1, 2007. This is Mika's first fun match at this venue since then. But no, she wasn't worried! Yay, what a brave girlie, and such a huge change from our first fun match those years ago!!

Starters Gamblers
Started off with the weaves (straight on entry), with she got, fast and accurate. I threw her food tube a LOT in this run since Gamblers isn't very flowing. We got the gamble -- chute, tire, jump, in a straight line -- perfectly. It was fun!

Wall-e

Starters Standard
He got the chute right away! He's been having some trouble with new chutes in different environments, but he did this brand-new chute that he's never been in before the first time! Rewarded a lot for that. Aaand...he got his WEAVES!!

Starters Gamblers
Started with the weaves (like Mika), which he got! Then we were going to do the mini gamble. Hahaha, Wall-e did it harder than it was supposed to be. There was a jump, then ahead, two jumps beside each other parallel to the first jump (set so that the dog had a choice of which jump to take), and then a tunnel under the A-frame. The Starters mini gamble was jump, then the jump closer to the handler. Simple. But WALL-E took the first jump, then from the two jumps beside each other he took the jump farther away from me, and then ran into the tunnel! HA! Wow. What a Gamblers dog. Even in the main gamble, I meant for him to do the chute but he ran out farther away and did a jump on the other side of the chute! I used my opposite arm to pull him in to me (which he responded to immediately) and he did the chute. He really prefers to work far away from me rather than close to me.